Updated July 10, 2026 — 3:13pm,first published July 10, 2026 — 8:53am
The judge at the centre of a NSW inquiry into the state’s top prosecutor has defended her decision to make an explosive submission to a parliamentary committee that ultimately made damning findings against the Director of Public Prosecutions.
District Court Judge Penelope Wass said in a decision on Friday that her submission to the upper house inquiry was made “in accordance with ordinary judicial practice”.
Wass said that “without the support of the chief judge or the attorney-general, I was obliged to take appropriate steps to resist a clear attack on my independence by a powerful stakeholder in the criminal justice system”.
In a controversial report, released on Tuesday, a 4-3 majority of NSW MPs made damaging findings that DPP Sally Dowling, SC, authorised her office to give a negative story about Wass to a media outlet in 2024 and falsely denied doing so in her evidence in parliament.
