Nicholas Cowdery backs NSW DPP Sally Dowling after upper house inquiry
Updated ,first published
Legal leaders have backed the Director of Public Prosecutions after a controversial investigation in the NSW upper house found she made false statements to parliament and approved her office’s release to the media of a negative story about a sitting judge.
KC’s Nicholas Cowdery, who served as DPP in NSW for 16 years, said the report published on Tuesday was outrageous and damning findings about Sally Dowling, SC made by a 4-3 majority of MPs were not supported by evidence.
“It takes very strong evidence and support to accuse someone like the DPP of lying to a parliamentary committee,” he said.
He stated that in this case there was evidence to prove the contrary. Cowdery said three of the seven MPs on the committee had strong dissenting views.
The majority of the committee recommended that the state government consider establishing a new parliamentary oversight committee for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Cowdery said when he was DPP in 2001 that it was “a proposal that has been completely discredited in the past” and that the idea had been put forward by the Coalition opposition.
“This ugly head has been raised and brought down before, and it is quite inappropriate for it to be removed now,” he said.
Former Independent Anti-Corruption Commissioner Megan Latham, a former Crown prosecutor and District and High Court judge, said the report had “led to well-deserved criticism” from Attorney-General Michael Daley and Cowdery.
“Anyone who reads the majority’s reasoning will be stunned by its flawed logic,” Latham said.
He said the majority “rejected direct evidence in favor of hearsay and conjecture” to make findings against Dowling.
Latham said that “an investigation operating outside its remit and dealing predominantly with disputes between senior public officials contributes nothing to the public interest.”
“At a time when Western democracies, including Australia, are suffering from a loss of public confidence in government institutions, a committee with its processes and procedures in disarray risks contributing to this malaise.”
In her testimony before the upper house justice and communities committee last year, Dowling admitted her office effectively passed a story about District Court Judge Penelope Wass to 2GB in October 2024.
Dowling vehemently denied allowing ODPP’s media manager to provide information to 2GB and said she only learned more than a year later, in December 2025, that her office was the source of the story. The majority did not accept his rejection.
The parliamentary inquiry heard Dowling was present at an internal meeting with the ODPP media manager and an external media consultant the day before the 2GB story was published.
Dowling told the committee after the meeting that the media manager did not dispute that he “had a misunderstanding” that he had been given the authority to raise the story with 2GB. But he said he “does not and will not approve of this happening.”
Dowling in question during that meeting “as usual, he was also reading emails and texts related to various prosecutions and other ODPP business.”
“I now deeply regret not giving this meeting my full attention,” Dowling said.
The 2GB story follows a wave of negative publicity towards ODPP.
Some District Court judges, including Wass, had issued rulings criticizing the office’s handling of sexual assault cases. Australian To report on the claim that “#MeToo has gone overboard.”
Dowling complained to the Judiciary Committee about two decisions made by the justices Peter Whitford And Robert Newlinds. The watchdog said in 2024 that his comments were inappropriate and had no evidentiary basis. Both judges apologized.
“The committee is satisfied that the story was put forward in retaliation for Judge Wass’s earlier criticism. [ODPP]said the majority.
Report ‘ridiculous’: Daley
Attorney-General Michael Daley doubled down on his previous claims that the investigation was a “seam” and told ABC radio on Wednesday that the investigation was “bordering on an abuse of parliamentary processes”.
The majority recommended that Daley “consider establishing a formal investigation with mandatory powers” to review the 2GB incident to determine whether there are grounds to remove Dowling.
“That’s not going to happen,” Daley said. “Even if I wanted to get rid of the principal, which I certainly don’t, I would have to take this report to the governor and recommend his removal; [former NSW Court of Appeal judge] … if I had tried to use this report to fire the principal, he would have laughed at me from his office.
“I can’t do that because it’s ridiculous.”
He said on Tuesday that “in light of my serious concerns about the recommendations and findings contained in this report, I will instruct the Crown Solicitor’s Office to brief senior counsel to review the report.”
‘Buck always stays on top’
Shadow attorney general Susan Carter, one of two Liberal MPs to endorse the majority’s findings in the inquiry, told ABC radio that Daley’s comments were “extraordinary”.
Carter said it was “truly a shame that he walked out the door with these comments, apparently without reading the report.”
Asked whether it would have made a difference if Dowling authorized information was given to 2GB or if a member of staff acted alone, Carter said: “I think the responsibility always remains at the top.
“I think it doesn’t pass the pub test to say a teenager made that decision and so I bear no responsibility for what happened.”
The Law Society of NSW and the NSW Bar Association expressed concerns about a potential new parliamentary oversight committee for the ODPP in a joint statement.
“It is a fundamental principle of our justice system that decisions to initiate and pursue criminal prosecution should not be interfered with,” they said.
“Bodies representing the state’s 47,000 lawyers urge us to exercise extreme caution in considering any reforms that might risk undermining this prosecutorial independence, which is critical to the proper functioning of our criminal justice system.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the province’s Crown prosecutors offered their support to Dowling.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC said: “Independence is fundamental to the functioning of our criminal justice system.” [the ODPP] “It ensures that it is protected and free from political interference.”
Legal Aid NSW chief executive Monique Hitter said the DPP was a “non-political, independent legal officer” and that the ODPP was critical that “prosecution decisions are made ‘distanced’ from politics and based solely on the law and available evidence”.
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