What we investigate

For us to be able to investigate a matter, it must relate to improper conduct by a Northern Territory public body or public officer.  Be aware that there are also particular kinds of matters we do not investigate.

What is ‘improper conduct’?

Type 1: A public body or public officer behaves in a way that involves one or more of the characteristics in Column A and one or more of the characteristics in Column B.

Column A
(degree of seriousness)

Column B
(kind of behaviour)
  • Conduct that could result in the person being charged with a criminal offence.
  • Conduct that could result in the person’s employment being terminated.
  • Seeking / accepting a bribe or inducement
  • Dishonesty
  • Inappropriate bias
  • A breach of trust
  • Misuse of confidential information

Type 2: A public body or public officer does something which involves:

  • a risk to public health and safety; or
  •   a risk to the environment; or
  • misuse or mismanagement of public resources;

Type 3: A public body or public officer does something which adversely affects someone’s interests in a significant and specific way and that conduct is one or more of the following:

  • contrary to law;
  • unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, or improperly discriminatory; or
  • based at least partly on improper motives.

Type 4: A person (not necessarily a public officer) does something to another person:

  • because they made a disclosure or cooperated with our investigation; or
  • to deter them from making a disclosure or cooperating with our investigation.

To see the definition of improper conduct as it appears in the legislation, click here

What if the improper conduct hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to happen in the future?

We can investigate regardless of whether the improper conduct occurred in the past, is occurring at the moment, or may occur in the future.  For allegations of future conduct, there must be information to suggest a public body or public officer intends to engage in improper conduct in the future.

Information about improper conduct is known as public interest information.

We can also investigate conspiracies and attempts to engage in improper conduct, provided that the alleged conduct would be a criminal offence.

What is a public body?

The following bodies are public bodies if they are located in the Territory:

  • Agencies as defined by the Administrative Arrangements Order.  These are typically NT Government Departments, Government Offices, and Government Corporations.
  • Councils established under the Local Government Act.  A list of these councils can be found here.
  • The Police Force.
  • A corporation defined as a ‘Government-Owned Corporation’ (GOC).  If a corporation is a GOC, this will be stated clearly by the Act that establishes it.  For example, the Power and Water Corporation is a Government-Owned Corporation, but the Darwin Port Corporation is an Agency.
  • Nursing homes.
  • Public hospitals.  A list of public hospitals can be found here.
  • Charles Darwin University.
  • Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.
  • A body established under a Norther Territory Act for a public purpose.  For example, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is established by the Environment Protection Authority Act 2007 (NT), and section 5 of that Act says the EPA’s functions are to ‘give advice and make recommendations to the Territory, businesses and the community about ecologically sustainable development’.  This is clearly a public purpose.
  • A body where at least the majority of members are appointed by the Administrator or a minister.  For example, the Hospital Management Board for each hospital consists of 8 persons, 5 of whom are persons appointed by the Minister (see the Hospital Management Boards Act s 6).

Courts and most tribunals are not public bodies.  In the future, the Public Interest Disclosure Regulations may list additional bodies as public bodies.

What is a public officer?

A public officer includes:

  • Any member, officer or employee of a public body, including a police officer.  Some contract service providers may be employees if their contractual arrangements are sufficiently like an employment arrangement.
  • A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), meaning a politician elected to the Territory’s parliament.
  • Someone appointed by the Administrator or by a minister under an Northern Territory Act (eg. the Commissioner for Public Employment is appointed by the Administrator under section 8 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act).

What don’t we investigate?

It is important to recognise that we are not here to help you with your personal grievances (eg. ‘I didn’t get a promotion’ or ‘The government has been slow in responding to my request’).  Our role is to expose and eliminate improper conduct in the public sector, not for personal benefit, but for the good of the Territory community. 

If you believe your personal grievance reveals an example of improper conduct by a public body or public officer, then we encourage you to report it to us.  It may be that the improper conduct is an issue we can investigate separately to the issue of your personal grievance.  However, we are unlikely to investigate the matter if the impropriety related to a minor technical or procedural mistake.

We also operate in a way that acknowledges the Territory has a democratically elected government.  As our elected representatives, the government is entitled to make decisions about what policies to pursue, and which projects should be funded.  Not everyone will agree with every policy.  It is not our role to investigate policy decisions that were made in a proper, legal way.  Our job is to investigate decisions and actions that were taken improperly or illegally.

If we are unable to help, here is a useful list of other avenues for pursuing your issue.

About us