Before ParliamentDemocracy & Government Introduced in the House of Representatives, 01 Apr 2026

Over 300 secrecy rules could lose their jail terms

Public servants, meaning government workers, live under secrecy laws. So do contractors and reporters. This bill would cut secrecy crimes by more than a third. It would add a new crime for using inside facts for gain. The law minister (the Attorney-General) would have to agree before a reporter is charged.

Official name: Secrecy Provisions Amendment (Repealing Offences) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• Public servants and former public servants: Breaking most rules about keeping things secret would no longer be a crime, but misusing secrets for gain could be.
• Consultants, contractors and unpaid advisers to government: They would be covered by the new crime for misusing government secrets, even with no contract.
• Journalists and news staff: They could not be charged with a secrecy crime unless the law minister agrees in writing.
• Members of the public: Penalties for leaking some secret papers would drop, and just holding it would no longer be a crime.
• ABC and SBS staff: They would no longer be caught by the stricter secrecy crimes meant for government staff.

Hundreds of messy secrecy rules

Federal law has hundreds of secrecy rules. They stop people sharing some government facts, such as national security secrets, tax records or health data.

Many reviews have said there are too many of these rules. They say the rules are messy and hard to follow.

The reviews include one by the federal law review body (the Australian Law Reform Commission). Another came from the Attorney-General's Department in 2023. The Attorney-General is the minister for the law and courts. This article calls them the law minister.

Another review came in 2024 from the security laws monitor. This is an independent official who checks national security laws.

The Parliamentary Library works for all MPs and takes no side. Its guide to the bill says only 18 secrecy crimes under 11 laws were used in court cases between 1985 and late 2023.

One rule is section 122.4 of the Criminal Code, the main federal list of crimes. It makes it a crime for an official to break any of more than 300 duties to keep things secret.

It was always meant to be short-term while each duty was checked. That check is now done.

The government also wants to close a gap that came to light in a case at the consulting firm PwC. A former partner, or part-owner, of the firm is said to have shared private plans. They came from Treasury, the government's main money department. He is said to have used them to help clients avoid tax.

New crime for misusing information

The first part of the bill would scrap the old section 122.4. A new, narrower crime would take its place.

Under the new crime, a person would break the law if they use or pass on secrets they got through working for the government. They must mean to gain something for someone, or to harm a government body or another person. A sensible person must also see the use as wrong.

It covers current and former public servants and people hired to work for the government. It also covers people who do work for the government, paid or unpaid. One example is a member of an advice board.

The top penalty would be two years in jail. The prosecution would not have to prove the person really gained or caused harm. Trying is enough.

Say a consultant hears in a government meeting about a planned tax change. He uses that to help another client dodge the change. He could be charged.

A person who shares general, harmless facts, or facts anyone could ask for, would not be caught.

Sixteen duties keep criminal penalties

Most of the more than 300 duties to keep things secret would stay. But they would no longer bring jail. Breaking them could still get you sacked or punished at work, under workplace rule books, contracts or privacy law.

Sixteen duties would keep the old criminal penalty. They protect private health, personal and business details.

Examples include census data held by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the national statistics agency. Another is private details held by the competition and consumer watchdog. Others cover hearing services, drug prices, health research, public hospital money, old records and patents. Patents give inventors sole rights to their inventions.

Old crimes repealed or softened

The second part of the bill would go through other laws one by one. Some secrecy crimes would be scrapped because they are no longer needed.

One protects papers from two broadcasting bodies that were shut down by July 2005. Others are in laws about child care, fishing and blood supplies. Some are in laws on how things are measured, on sex bias, and on checks of unis.

Other secrecy crimes would lose their penalty but stay as duties. These include rules in the Reserve Bank Act and the Australian Jobs Act. They also include the export finance law, port figures and the scheme that pays artists when their art is sold again.

The government says more than 300 secrecy rules would no longer bring criminal penalties. That counts the end of section 122.4. It is more than one third of all national secrecy rules with criminal penalties.

Attorney-General must approve journalist charges

Right now, a written order from a minister covers this. It tells the federal prosecutor to ask the law minister before charging a reporter for eight secrecy crimes. The federal prosecutor is the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

The third part of the bill would put this into law and make it much wider. Prosecutors would need the law minister's OK in writing to charge a reporter for any secrecy crime.

This applies when a sensible person would see the reporter as doing their job. It also covers other staff at news firms, such as people in web, editing or legal jobs. Freelance reporters, who work for themselves, are covered. People who only claim to be reporters are not.

Police could still arrest and charge a person before the OK is given. A court could also keep them locked up or let them out on bail, which means free until the case is heard. Nothing more could happen until the law minister agrees. A court could let the person go if the case is not carried on within a fair time.

Crimes that already need a minister's OK are left out, to avoid doubling up. The government could also name crimes that would not need the OK, in detailed rules it writes without a new vote.

The current defence for news reporting in the public interest stays in place. That means reporting done for the good of the public.

Main Criminal Code crimes changed

The fourth part of the bill carries out the government's answer to the security laws monitor's review.

At present, some crimes depend on whether a paper was stamped with a security label, such as 'Secret'. The bill would remove that link. A crime would depend on what the papers really are. The label on it would no longer decide.

Some secret papers are very private. For people outside government, the penalty for passing it on would fall from five years' jail to three.

Just dealing with those papers, such as holding or copying them, would no longer be a crime for them. It says outsiders do not get the same security training as staff.

Some harm tests would be made tighter. The leak would have to damage a real job of government, such as the national police's protection work or public health and safety. The bill would also narrow when a crime counts as more serious and brings a heavier penalty.

Two crimes about taking papers away from their proper safe place would be scrapped. The government says they never worked, because the detailed rules they needed were never made.

The bill would make clear that staff of the two public broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, are not treated as government staff under these crimes. Unpaid helpers who do work for government would be added to the crimes for staff.

The Defence Intelligence Organisation is the military's spy agency. It would have to publish the paper that sets out what it does. It already does this on the Defence website.

Missing secrecy penalty added

The fifth part of the bill adds a missing penalty to a secrecy rule. The rule is in the law on business names. Breaking it could lead to a fine of 120 penalty units, two years' jail, or both. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used in federal law.

It also fixes wording mistakes in the defence for giving secrets to bodies that fight wrongdoing. One is the federal complaints officer (the Ombudsman). Another is the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which looks into dishonest conduct by federal officials.

Start date

The law would start the day after it is signed into law by the Governor-General. The Governor-General is the King's stand-in in Australia.

The bill was brought to the House of Representatives on 1 April 2026. The House passed it on 14 May 2026.

The Senate got it on 22 June 2026. The Senate is the second house of Parliament, which checks bills. Debate on the main idea of the bill began that day.

The Senate had earlier sent it to a committee of senators on legal matters. Its report was due by 19 June 2026.

The bill still needs to pass the Senate and be signed. A second bill pushed back the end date of the old section 122.4 to 29 December 2026. That gives time for this bill to pass and start.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

Open the full interactive page