Prosecutors weigh up Australia’s first case under government secrecy laws

Revelation comes as the new independent monitor raises concerns about the laws which can send someone to jail for up to 10 years for revealing classified information

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Federal prosecutors are considering Australia’s first prosecution under broad-ranging general secrecy laws that can send someone revealing classified government information to jail for up to 10 years.

Nobody has ever been prosecuted under part 5.6 of the Criminal Code Act, which was introduced in December 2018 as a catch-all, general secrecy law designed to protect high-level commonwealth information, the release of which would be “inherently harmful”. It targets commonwealth officials but also contains an offence that covers anyone – including journalists, academics or the wider public – disclosing information that the government has stamped “secret” or “top secret”.

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