Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsUnlawful access to delivery service articles
(1) It is unlawful for:
(a) the Director - General, an ASIO employee or an ASIO affiliate, for the purposes of the Organisation, to seek from a delivery service provider or from an employee or agent of a delivery service provider; or
(b) a delivery service provider or an employee or agent of a delivery service provider to give the Director - General, an ASIO employee or an ASIO affiliate, for the purposes of the Organisation;
access to:
(c) an article that is being delivered by the delivery service provider; or
(d) information concerning the contents or cover of any such article;
except in accordance with, or for the purposes of, a warrant under this Division. It is the duty of the Director - General to take all reasonable steps to ensure that this subsection is not contravened.
Note: Delivery service provider , agent and article are defined in subsection (12).
Issue of delivery services warrant
(2) If the Director - General requests the Attorney - General to do so, and the Attorney - General is satisfied as mentioned in subsection (3) or (6), the Attorney - General may issue a warrant in accordance with this section.
Test 1 for issue of warrant
(3) The Attorney - General may issue a warrant if he or she is satisfied that:
(a) a person (the subject ) is engaged in or is reasonably suspected by the Director - General of being engaged in, or of being likely to engage in, activities prejudicial to security; and
(b) access by the Organisation to articles sent by or on behalf of, addressed to or intended to be received by, the subject while the articles are being delivered by a delivery service provider, will, or is likely to, assist the Organisation in carrying out its function of obtaining intelligence relevant to security.
Authorisation in warrant
(4) The warrant must be signed by the Attorney - General and must authorise the Organisation to do specified things, subject to any restrictions or conditions specified in the warrant, in relation to articles that:
(a) are being delivered by the delivery service provider; and
(b) in respect of which any of the following are satisfied:
(i) the articles have been sent by or on behalf of the subject, who must be specified in the warrant, or addressed to the subject; or
(ii) the articles are reasonably suspected, by a person authorised to exercise the authority of the Organisation under the warrant, of having been so sent or addressed; or
(iii) the articles are intended to be received by the subject, who must be specified in the warrant, or are reasonably suspected, by a person authorised to exercise the authority of the Organisation under the warrant, of being intended to be received by the subject.
Things that may be specified for a warrant issued under subsection (3)
(5) The things that may be specified are any of the following that the Attorney - General considers appropriate in the circumstances:
(a) inspecting or making copies of the articles or the covers of the articles;
(b) opening the articles;
(c) inspecting and making copies of the contents of the articles;
(d) any other thing reasonably incidental to any of the above.
Test 2 for issue of warrant
(6) The Attorney - General may issue a warrant if he or she is satisfied that:
(a) some or all of the articles that are being, or are likely to be, sent by a delivery service provider to an address (the subject address ) are, or will be intended to be, received by a person (the subject ) (whether of known identity or not) engaged in, or reasonably suspected by the Director - General of being engaged in, or of being likely to engage in, activities prejudicial to security; and
(b) access by the Organisation to articles sent to, or intended to be received by, the subject while the articles are being delivered by a delivery service provider will, or is likely to, assist the Organisation in carrying out its function of obtaining intelligence relevant to security.
Authorisation in warrant
(7) The warrant must be signed by the Attorney - General and must authorise the Organisation to do specified things, subject to any restrictions or conditions specified in the warrant, in relation to articles that:
(a) are being delivered by the delivery service provider; and
(b) are addressed to the subject address, which must be specified in the warrant; and
(c) appear on their face to be, or are reasonably suspected by a person authorised to exercise the authority of the Organisation under the warrant to be, intended to be received by the subject.
Things that may be specified for warrant issued under subsection (6)
(8) The things that may be specified are any of the following that the Attorney - General considers appropriate in the circumstances:
(a) inspecting or making copies of any of the articles or the covers of the articles;
(b) opening any of the articles;
(c) inspecting and making copies of the contents of any of the articles;
(d) any other thing reasonably incidental to any of the above.
Duration of warrant
(9) A warrant issued under this section must specify the period during which it is to remain in force. The period must not be more than 6 months, although the Attorney - General may revoke the warrant before the period has expired.
Issue of further warrants not prevented
(10) Subsection (9) does not prevent the issue of any further warrant.
(11) To avoid doubt, the expression deliver an article includes any thing done by the deliverer, for the purpose of delivering the article, from the time when the article is given to the deliverer by the sender until it is given by the deliverer to the recipient.
(12) In this section:
"agent" , in relation to a delivery service provider, includes:
(a) any person performing services for the delivery service provider otherwise than under a contract of service; and
(b) an employee of the person mentioned in paragraph (a).
"article" means any object reasonably capable of being sent through the post.
"delivery service provider" means a person whose business is or includes delivering articles.