Crime and Corruption Commission matters

What the CCC does

The Commission has two main functions and they operate under different rules.

• The crime function. Investigating major crime and organised crime referred to it by the Crime Reference Committee, including drug trafficking, money laundering and serious organised offending. This is where coercive hearings are used to compel evidence from people who are not necessarily suspects.
• The corruption function. Dealing with corrupt conduct in the Queensland public sector, including the Queensland Police Service, local government, public service departments, universities and government owned corporations.

The CCC also runs the civil confiscation scheme under the Criminal Proceeds Confiscation Act 2002 (Qld). If you have received a restraining order application, read the proceeds of crime page as well.

Notices, and what you must do

There are two things people commonly receive.

1. A notice to produce a document or thing, issued under the notice provisions in Chapter 3 of the Act. You must produce what is described by the date stated. Failing to comply without a reasonable excuse is an offence.
2. A notice to attend a hearing, issued under section 82. It requires you to attend and give evidence at a Commission hearing at a stated time and place.

Do not ignore either. Do not destroy or alter anything covered by a notice, because that is a separate and serious offence. Do not assume you are the target, because the CCC compels evidence from witnesses far more often than from suspects.

Notices requiring immediate attendance can only be issued by or with the approval of a Supreme Court judge under section 85, which is a useful check on the process.

Coercive hearings and the immunity that protects you

At a Commission hearing you cannot decline to answer on the ground that the answer might incriminate you. The privilege against self incrimination is removed by the Act, and refusing to answer without a reasonable excuse carries up to 200 penalty units or 5 years imprisonment. Legal professional privilege is preserved and is claimed under section 191.

The protection is section 197. Where you object to answering a question or producing a document on the ground of self incrimination, and are then required to do so, the answer, document or thing is generally not admissible against you in a later civil, criminal or administrative proceeding. There are exceptions, including proceedings about the falsity of the answer, proceedings for offences against the Act itself, and confiscation proceedings.

The practical point is that the objection must actually be made, on the record, at the time. If you answer without objecting, the immunity may not attach. That is one of the main reasons to have a lawyer present.

You may be legally represented at a hearing under section 181. Hearings are usually closed under section 177, and orders can be made under section 202 restricting disclosure of what happened, including to your employer and in some cases to your family. Breaching such an order is an offence, and contempt of the person conducting the hearing is dealt with under section 198.

Public sector misconduct

If you work in the Queensland public sector, a corruption allegation is likely to run on two tracks at once. The CCC may investigate, or refer the matter back to your agency to deal with under CCC oversight, while your agency runs its own disciplinary process.

Those processes are not the same. The disciplinary standard is the balance of probabilities. Directions to answer questions given by an employer are generally lawful, and the answers may not carry the section 197 protection. Public interest disclosure protections under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2010 (Qld) may be relevant if you were the person who reported the conduct.

The sequencing matters enormously. What you say in a disciplinary interview can end up in a criminal brief. Do not respond to a show cause notice or attend a disciplinary interview about conduct that could be criminal without advice.