Numerous NSW Government Senior Executives, including NSW Premier, Ignore Legitimate Report of Corruption by Dept of Communities & Justice Director In Contravention of Legislation, Published Policy, Corruption Reporting and Response Protocols, 15.02.2026
The report of corrupt conduct (July 2025) set out the department’s Open Government Information & Privacy Unit (OGIPU) Director acting in breach of the public’s beneficial legislation.
The primary legislation concerning the OGIPU, as indicated by the departmental title, are the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, GIPA, and the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, PPIP.
GIPA concerns the public’s legislated rights to request access to NSW government information. PPIP concerns the public’s legislated rights of protection of personal information. These two pieces of legislation are the public’s beneficial legislation. Neither piece provides any benefit to the government, they are public service law. They are not penal; they do not punish or provide any mechanism for punishment. They are not fiscal; they do not make provision for mandatory financial reporting obligations such as taxation.
They were each free gifts from the NSW Parliament to the people of NSW. As such, every NSW government agency is bound by them. This includes of course the staff employed within those agencies. This means they cannot bypass the legislation.
The report was a scathing account of a number of serious offences under both pieces of legislation. In particular the report set out how the OGIPU Director capitalised on her membership with the NSW Right to Information & Privacy Officers Network, NIPPN, to act out those breaches of the legislation. The report went further, naming the individual responsible, and the extraordinary revelation this course of corruption of the legislation was being acted out in plain sight of the (500) five hundred NIPPN members, none of whom are evidenced to have made any due report. It was apparent the OGIPU Director was relying on the NIPPN Terms of Reference which highlight the non-legislated Chatham House Rules to ensure anonymity and protection from accountability. So arrogant.
The report systematically set out for the Premier, Ministers and Agency Heads, what has been happening right under their noses with no indication of it ceasing, or any person with the courage to intervene to ensure it ceased. In fact, all indications are the individual is still in her job with business as usual and no accountability whatsoever, not even a formal reprimand.
The report concerns the case of the Department of Communities & Justice, Open Government Information & Privacy Unit Director / Business Unit Manager Jodie Cobbin. Cobbin operates primarily in the access to information and privacy space, in the area of administrative law. This means she interacts with the public’s beneficial legislation the GIPA and PPIP Acts on likely a daily basis.
It is reasonable to expect Cobbin understands the legislation, and she understands the legislation applies to her. She has no immunity from the legislation whatsoever. In fact, statutory reports from the Department to the NSW Parliament confirm not even the Premier has immunity.
However, through the NIPPN vehicle Cobbin acted to completely bypass her obligations under the GIPA Act and solicit government information from all (500) five hundred members, absent of a single formal access application. This also resulted in there being no paper trail for the responses to her requests for government information. And protected under Chatham House Rules it was clearly her intention to keep the whole matter hidden from her superiors and a questioning public. She solicited the information from the whole of the State’s population of right to information and privacy officers on the false premise the Department was conducting a study.
A later formal access application by a member of the public for the records and claimed study associated with that collective solicitation would see a response of “no information held”. How is that remotely possible? Not one of the 500 responded? Not a single rejection? Sure!
Through the NIPPN vehicle Cobbin also acted to breach the public’s privacy, using department access privileges to identify and single out a particular member of the public, identifying that person to the whole of the NIPPN membership, without first seeking consent from the person in question. In that breach of privacy which she presented to NIPPN under the document title “Tale of a Fixated Applicant” Cobbin would disclose her personal management strategy included involving NSW Police and seeking costs. Involving NSW Police in GIPA Applications? Yes, and seeking costs via legislation that does not provide any mechanism for costs. Let’s just say that again. There is no provision in the GIPA Act 2009, the public’s legislation, for costs; costs in the context of legal costs in the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal, NCAT. Not for either side, not for agencies and not for the public. No costs. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Diddly-squat. Zero! This is supported by NCAT documentation, the NCAT’s Policy Guideline on Costs, which states its jurisdiction to consider an application for costs is limited by a particular law giving NCAT discretionary powers to do so or not. This discretionary law translates to the enabling legislation. Unless the enabling legislation states costs can be awarded, there is no jurisdiction to even consider such an application. Neither GIPA or PPIP provides any discretion on the issue of costs. It is irrelevant who the parties are; not even the Pope or King of England can be awarded costs in the context of the GIPA Act 2009 or PPIP Act 1998 by the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal. It was never the Parliament’s Intention the public’s beneficial legislation, which is enacted by the reasonable sum of $30.00 for GIPA and no cost at all for PPIP, would be positioned to punish the public for exercising legally enforceable rights.
Cobbin knows it’s unlawful but she is on the public record recommending agencies seek costs anyway. And yes the OGIPU has been repeatedly successful in getting costs. What a champion!
But not satisfied with undermining the public’s rights to access beneficial legislation, bypassing mandatory obligations, breaching the public’s privacy, she would go further to make submissions to the NSW Parliament to make it more difficult for the public to seek access to NSW government records.
Adding to this list of offences and insults she endorses staff using pseudonyms within GIPA documentation, when the legislation clearly says officers are to provide contact details, not an alias.
She has also recommended agencies collaborate for the purposes of seeking restraining orders against the public in the context of the GIPA Act 2009. She has endorsed joining disqualified applicants and respondents to GIPA Act Section 110 proceedings. Her department readily misrepresents legislative parameters. In a single Section 110 case managed by her OGIPU department, her subordinates racked up a staggering bill for $295,592.88 to the date of filing Submissions and Evidence with NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal. This amount did not include the hearing or its entourage, travel, accommodation, meals, etc. It did not include Submissions in Reply or the preparation for the hearing.
So who is Cobbin? Well we do know she is an ex-NSW Police Superintendent.
As such she’s probably put more people away at the pleasure of the Crown than she’s had hot dinners.
But here according to this report, she’s the offender let’s be brutally honest.
The tables have well and truly turned.
So armed with this documented evidence, on 31st July 2025, Telina Webb of NSW Freedom of Information sent a report on this corruption of the legislation to her superior Michael Tidball. The report was copied to a number of relevant senior government executives including NSW Premier Chris Minns and the NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley, individuals who should have been so shocked by the content of the report, they each demanded action. However, there is no evidence any person demanded action of any kind. No evidence any person made any inquiry. No evidence any person forwarded their copy of the document to Michael Tidball or Michael Daley for a ‘please explain’, as seems to be standard NSW government agency protocol, generally known as departmental buck passing as each person remains too weak to do anything of substance.
And not one of those senior executives has responded to Webb, including neglecting to provide any acknowledgement of receipt, despite her numerous follow up correspondence.
And there you have it. A concise report of repeat acts of corruption of the legislation by a prominent NSW Government Senior Executive, the impacts of which are causing the NSW public likely immeasurable financial, emotional, and psychological harm, and no person seems to give a flying hoot. On its own merit, breaching the legislation is a matter of its own seriousness. But acting to undermine the legislation, abusing position, authority and public resources, are also matters of their own seriousness. Is this the calibre of individual the public must come to expect of its public servants? And more importantly were all her convictions in her former life conducted with integrity?! A leopard doesn't change its spots! Webb’s report is available here with the list of recipients. NCAT’s Guideline on Costs is available here, noting Point 5 on discretion. Jodie Cobbin retains her position as Director / Business Unit Manager OGIPU. The NSW Premier, the NSW Attorney-General, and the Secretary – Department of Communities & Justice have all effectively turned a blind eye on corruption of the legislation by effectively endorsing the corrupt conduct of one of the government’s most prominent employees and one with a very public face of the organisation. Shame Michael Tidball, Shame! Shame Premier Minns and Minister Daley, Shame! It is due to the fact nothing has been done about the corrupt conduct of the legislation by the OGIPU Director Jodie Cobbin after the official reporting (6) six months prior, that this matter has now been made public, as a significant matter of public interest. Of course, Cobbin is not the only public servant enjoying public monies who acts in this manner. But she is an example of acceptable behaviours by those sitting in positions as community role models. “What’s needed is a complete cultural shift where agency personnel understand, appreciate and accept the public has the right to access NSW government information, as opposed to the current norm which criminalises the public and punishes the public’s endeavours to exercise their legal rights through the pursuit of costs,” stated Webb. "It’s also very concerning this valid report of corruption has clearly been totally ignored, with no paper trail to follow, despite the policies and procedures setting departmental standards and professing a ‘zero tolerance’ to corruption. It’s just lip service,” stated Webb. “Much the same as the State’s reinvention of its service delivery mechanisms which saw the successful implementation of Service NSW, the public seeks an individual willing to do the very hard task of changing the dynamics and attitudes and practices of NSW Right to Information Officers (and Privacy Officers) and properly re-educating them to do their jobs as a service to the community. Currently these officers treat government information as if it is their own, to be guarded. They go through the Public Interest Considerations Against Disclosure like a shopping list, looking for all the reasons to prevent access to information. They know it’s difficult to seek a review or get any just decisions. These public servants have effectively managed to turn exercising legal rights into offensive conduct. This is not the intention of the NSW Parliament made clear at the GIPA Act 2009 Section 3 Object of the Act,” stated Webb. “They need to start by re-reading, or reading for the first time, the speech of Nathan Rees when he introduced the GIPA Act. Transparency and accountability come through openness, not cover ups; not to mention the fundamental democratic fact the public has the right to know what its government is doing. We have the legislated right to ask for government records. We have the right to question the government’s actions. Those rights should not be responded to with punishment of any kind of retaliation including covert denigration. These actions are now documented. And a huge part of this state-wide management strategy is seeking costs. Until we all speak up and get the state’s government employees to stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about the public they serve, we really cannot expect much to change.”
Contact:Micheal Tidball, Secretary Dept of Communities & Justice, michael.tidball@dcj.nsw.gov.auChris Minns, NSW Premier, office@premier.nsw.gov.auMichael Daley, NSW Attorney General, office@daley.minister.nsw.gov.auKathrina Lo, NSW Public Service Commissioner, info@nsw.ipaa.org.au(Ms Lo has hidden her Public Service Commissioner contact information from the public)
The primary legislation concerning the OGIPU, as indicated by the departmental title, are the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, GIPA, and the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, PPIP.
GIPA concerns the public’s legislated rights to request access to NSW government information. PPIP concerns the public’s legislated rights of protection of personal information. These two pieces of legislation are the public’s beneficial legislation. Neither piece provides any benefit to the government, they are public service law. They are not penal; they do not punish or provide any mechanism for punishment. They are not fiscal; they do not make provision for mandatory financial reporting obligations such as taxation.
They were each free gifts from the NSW Parliament to the people of NSW. As such, every NSW government agency is bound by them. This includes of course the staff employed within those agencies. This means they cannot bypass the legislation.
The report was a scathing account of a number of serious offences under both pieces of legislation. In particular the report set out how the OGIPU Director capitalised on her membership with the NSW Right to Information & Privacy Officers Network, NIPPN, to act out those breaches of the legislation. The report went further, naming the individual responsible, and the extraordinary revelation this course of corruption of the legislation was being acted out in plain sight of the (500) five hundred NIPPN members, none of whom are evidenced to have made any due report. It was apparent the OGIPU Director was relying on the NIPPN Terms of Reference which highlight the non-legislated Chatham House Rules to ensure anonymity and protection from accountability. So arrogant.
The report systematically set out for the Premier, Ministers and Agency Heads, what has been happening right under their noses with no indication of it ceasing, or any person with the courage to intervene to ensure it ceased. In fact, all indications are the individual is still in her job with business as usual and no accountability whatsoever, not even a formal reprimand.
The report concerns the case of the Department of Communities & Justice, Open Government Information & Privacy Unit Director / Business Unit Manager Jodie Cobbin. Cobbin operates primarily in the access to information and privacy space, in the area of administrative law. This means she interacts with the public’s beneficial legislation the GIPA and PPIP Acts on likely a daily basis.
It is reasonable to expect Cobbin understands the legislation, and she understands the legislation applies to her. She has no immunity from the legislation whatsoever. In fact, statutory reports from the Department to the NSW Parliament confirm not even the Premier has immunity.
However, through the NIPPN vehicle Cobbin acted to completely bypass her obligations under the GIPA Act and solicit government information from all (500) five hundred members, absent of a single formal access application. This also resulted in there being no paper trail for the responses to her requests for government information. And protected under Chatham House Rules it was clearly her intention to keep the whole matter hidden from her superiors and a questioning public. She solicited the information from the whole of the State’s population of right to information and privacy officers on the false premise the Department was conducting a study.
A later formal access application by a member of the public for the records and claimed study associated with that collective solicitation would see a response of “no information held”. How is that remotely possible? Not one of the 500 responded? Not a single rejection? Sure!
Through the NIPPN vehicle Cobbin also acted to breach the public’s privacy, using department access privileges to identify and single out a particular member of the public, identifying that person to the whole of the NIPPN membership, without first seeking consent from the person in question. In that breach of privacy which she presented to NIPPN under the document title “Tale of a Fixated Applicant” Cobbin would disclose her personal management strategy included involving NSW Police and seeking costs. Involving NSW Police in GIPA Applications? Yes, and seeking costs via legislation that does not provide any mechanism for costs. Let’s just say that again. There is no provision in the GIPA Act 2009, the public’s legislation, for costs; costs in the context of legal costs in the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal, NCAT. Not for either side, not for agencies and not for the public. No costs. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Diddly-squat. Zero! This is supported by NCAT documentation, the NCAT’s Policy Guideline on Costs, which states its jurisdiction to consider an application for costs is limited by a particular law giving NCAT discretionary powers to do so or not. This discretionary law translates to the enabling legislation. Unless the enabling legislation states costs can be awarded, there is no jurisdiction to even consider such an application. Neither GIPA or PPIP provides any discretion on the issue of costs. It is irrelevant who the parties are; not even the Pope or King of England can be awarded costs in the context of the GIPA Act 2009 or PPIP Act 1998 by the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal. It was never the Parliament’s Intention the public’s beneficial legislation, which is enacted by the reasonable sum of $30.00 for GIPA and no cost at all for PPIP, would be positioned to punish the public for exercising legally enforceable rights.
Cobbin knows it’s unlawful but she is on the public record recommending agencies seek costs anyway. And yes the OGIPU has been repeatedly successful in getting costs. What a champion!
But not satisfied with undermining the public’s rights to access beneficial legislation, bypassing mandatory obligations, breaching the public’s privacy, she would go further to make submissions to the NSW Parliament to make it more difficult for the public to seek access to NSW government records.
Adding to this list of offences and insults she endorses staff using pseudonyms within GIPA documentation, when the legislation clearly says officers are to provide contact details, not an alias.
She has also recommended agencies collaborate for the purposes of seeking restraining orders against the public in the context of the GIPA Act 2009. She has endorsed joining disqualified applicants and respondents to GIPA Act Section 110 proceedings. Her department readily misrepresents legislative parameters. In a single Section 110 case managed by her OGIPU department, her subordinates racked up a staggering bill for $295,592.88 to the date of filing Submissions and Evidence with NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal. This amount did not include the hearing or its entourage, travel, accommodation, meals, etc. It did not include Submissions in Reply or the preparation for the hearing.
So who is Cobbin? Well we do know she is an ex-NSW Police Superintendent.
As such she’s probably put more people away at the pleasure of the Crown than she’s had hot dinners.
But here according to this report, she’s the offender let’s be brutally honest.
The tables have well and truly turned.
So armed with this documented evidence, on 31st July 2025, Telina Webb of NSW Freedom of Information sent a report on this corruption of the legislation to her superior Michael Tidball. The report was copied to a number of relevant senior government executives including NSW Premier Chris Minns and the NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley, individuals who should have been so shocked by the content of the report, they each demanded action. However, there is no evidence any person demanded action of any kind. No evidence any person made any inquiry. No evidence any person forwarded their copy of the document to Michael Tidball or Michael Daley for a ‘please explain’, as seems to be standard NSW government agency protocol, generally known as departmental buck passing as each person remains too weak to do anything of substance.
And not one of those senior executives has responded to Webb, including neglecting to provide any acknowledgement of receipt, despite her numerous follow up correspondence.
And there you have it. A concise report of repeat acts of corruption of the legislation by a prominent NSW Government Senior Executive, the impacts of which are causing the NSW public likely immeasurable financial, emotional, and psychological harm, and no person seems to give a flying hoot. On its own merit, breaching the legislation is a matter of its own seriousness. But acting to undermine the legislation, abusing position, authority and public resources, are also matters of their own seriousness. Is this the calibre of individual the public must come to expect of its public servants? And more importantly were all her convictions in her former life conducted with integrity?! A leopard doesn't change its spots! Webb’s report is available here with the list of recipients. NCAT’s Guideline on Costs is available here, noting Point 5 on discretion. Jodie Cobbin retains her position as Director / Business Unit Manager OGIPU. The NSW Premier, the NSW Attorney-General, and the Secretary – Department of Communities & Justice have all effectively turned a blind eye on corruption of the legislation by effectively endorsing the corrupt conduct of one of the government’s most prominent employees and one with a very public face of the organisation. Shame Michael Tidball, Shame! Shame Premier Minns and Minister Daley, Shame! It is due to the fact nothing has been done about the corrupt conduct of the legislation by the OGIPU Director Jodie Cobbin after the official reporting (6) six months prior, that this matter has now been made public, as a significant matter of public interest. Of course, Cobbin is not the only public servant enjoying public monies who acts in this manner. But she is an example of acceptable behaviours by those sitting in positions as community role models. “What’s needed is a complete cultural shift where agency personnel understand, appreciate and accept the public has the right to access NSW government information, as opposed to the current norm which criminalises the public and punishes the public’s endeavours to exercise their legal rights through the pursuit of costs,” stated Webb. "It’s also very concerning this valid report of corruption has clearly been totally ignored, with no paper trail to follow, despite the policies and procedures setting departmental standards and professing a ‘zero tolerance’ to corruption. It’s just lip service,” stated Webb. “Much the same as the State’s reinvention of its service delivery mechanisms which saw the successful implementation of Service NSW, the public seeks an individual willing to do the very hard task of changing the dynamics and attitudes and practices of NSW Right to Information Officers (and Privacy Officers) and properly re-educating them to do their jobs as a service to the community. Currently these officers treat government information as if it is their own, to be guarded. They go through the Public Interest Considerations Against Disclosure like a shopping list, looking for all the reasons to prevent access to information. They know it’s difficult to seek a review or get any just decisions. These public servants have effectively managed to turn exercising legal rights into offensive conduct. This is not the intention of the NSW Parliament made clear at the GIPA Act 2009 Section 3 Object of the Act,” stated Webb. “They need to start by re-reading, or reading for the first time, the speech of Nathan Rees when he introduced the GIPA Act. Transparency and accountability come through openness, not cover ups; not to mention the fundamental democratic fact the public has the right to know what its government is doing. We have the legislated right to ask for government records. We have the right to question the government’s actions. Those rights should not be responded to with punishment of any kind of retaliation including covert denigration. These actions are now documented. And a huge part of this state-wide management strategy is seeking costs. Until we all speak up and get the state’s government employees to stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about the public they serve, we really cannot expect much to change.”
Contact:Micheal Tidball, Secretary Dept of Communities & Justice, michael.tidball@dcj.nsw.gov.auChris Minns, NSW Premier, office@premier.nsw.gov.auMichael Daley, NSW Attorney General, office@daley.minister.nsw.gov.auKathrina Lo, NSW Public Service Commissioner, info@nsw.ipaa.org.au(Ms Lo has hidden her Public Service Commissioner contact information from the public)
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