Validation of Criminal Proceedings Commenced by Public Officers and Integrity Commissions
Criminal Procedure and Other Legislation Amendment (Criminal Proceedings) Bill 2025
Legislative Council
Legislative Assembly
Assent
Introduced by: Michael Daley MP (ALP); The Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Susan Carter LIB
“On behalf of the Opposition I contribute to debate on the Criminal Procedure and Other Legislation Amendment (Criminal Proceedings) Bill 2025. It is a difficult bill in some ways because at its heart it is retrospective legislation, and retrospective legislation calls for caution at the very least, or for it not to progress at all.”
Sue Higginson GRN
“I indicate The Greens support of the Criminal Procedure and Other Legislation Amendment (Criminal Proceedings) Bill 2025. This bill is a necessary response to the recent Gamage v Riashi decision in the New South Wales Court of Appeal that set aside nine convictions initiated by an ICAC officer.”
Daniel Mookhey ALP
“The bill remediates an issue that arose after the April 2025 decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in Gamage v Riashi [2025] NSWCA 84. The bill retrospectively validates certain prosecutions purported to have been commenced by public officers acting in an official capacity. I thank the Legislation Review Committee for its consideration of the bill in Legislation Review Digest No. 38/58.”
News articles and press releases
Criminal Procedure and Other Legislation Amendment (Criminal Proceedings) Bill 2025
The Hon. DANIEL MOOKHEY — 2025-10-23
Schedule 1 to the bill inserts a clause into schedule 2 to the Criminal Procedure Act, "Savings, transitional and other provisions", to retrospectively validate certain prosecutions commenced by public officers. This clause provides that if—before the commencement of the proposed Act—a person commenced a prosecution for a criminal offence, if that person was a person referred to in the definitions of a "public officer" under section 3 (1 - a) to (f) at the time, and if that person was purporting to commence those proceedings in their role as a public officer, then they are taken to have been acting in an official capacity in commencing the proceedings. That applies whether or not the agency or body of which they were an officer or employee had an express or implied function of commencing prosecutions.