Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION ACT 1979 - SECT 27C

Issue of warrant

  (1)   If the Director - General requests the Attorney - General to do so, and the Attorney - General is satisfied as mentioned in subsection   (2), the Attorney - General may issue an identified person warrant in relation to a particular person.

Test for issue of warrant

  (2)   The Attorney - General is only to issue an identified person warrant in relation to the person if he or she is satisfied that:

  (a)   the person 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)   the issuing of the warrant in relation to the person will, or is likely to, substantially assist the collection of intelligence relevant to security.

Requirements for warrant

  (3)   The identified person warrant must:

  (a)   be signed by the Attorney - General; and

  (b)   identify the person:

  (i)   if the name of the person is known--by specifying the person's name; or

  (ii)   otherwise--by including other details sufficient to identify the person; and

  (c)   give conditional approval for the Organisation to do one or more of the following:

  (i)   access records or other things in or on premises;

  (ii)   access data held in computers;

  (iii)   use one or more kinds of surveillance devices;

  (iv)   access postal articles that are in the course of the post;

  (v)   access articles that are being delivered by a delivery service provider.

Note:   Conditional approval does not, of itself, authorise the Organisation to do things under an identified person warrant. Things can only be done under the warrant if the Organisation is subsequently authorised to do those things: see sections   27D to 27H.

Duration of warrant

  (4)   An identified person warrant 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

  (5)   Subsection   (4) does not prevent the issue of any further warrant.

Warrant may be subject to restrictions or conditions

  (6)   An identified person warrant is subject to any restrictions or conditions specified in it.