Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) Where an authorised person has reason to believe that a person is capable of furnishing information or producing documents relating to a matter that is relevant to the exercise of a power, or the performance of a function, conferred or imposed on the Minister by or under this Act or that constitutes, or may constitute, a contravention of a civil penalty provision or an offence against this Act, he or she may, by notice in writing served on that person, require that person:
(a) to furnish to him or her, by writing signed by that person or, in the case of a body corporate, by a competent officer of the body corporate, within the time and in the manner specified in the notice, any such information; or
(b) to produce to him or her, or to any other authorised person specified in the notice, in accordance with the notice, any such documents.
Note: Sections 137.1 and 137.2 of the Criminal Code create offences for giving false or misleading information or documents.
(2) A person must not:
(a) refuse to comply with a notice under this section; or
(b) fail to comply with a notice under this section.
(2A) Subsection (2) does not apply to the extent that the person is not capable of complying with the notice.
Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matter in subsection (2A), see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code .
(2B) An offence against paragraph (2)(b) is an offence of strict liability.
Note: For strict liability , see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .
(5) A person is not excused from furnishing information or producing a document in pursuance of this section on the ground that the information or the production of the document might tend to incriminate the person or to render the person liable to a pecuniary penalty in accordance with section 34, but the information or the production of the document is not admissible in evidence against the person in any criminal proceedings other than:
(a) proceedings for an offence against subsection (2); or
(b) proceedings for an offence against section 137.1 or 137.2 of the Criminal Code (about false or misleading information or documents) that relates to this section.
(6) A person is not required to furnish information or produce a document containing information in pursuance of this section if there is in force a law of the Commonwealth prohibiting the person from disclosing the information or producing the document, whether the prohibition is absolute or is subject to exceptions or qualifications.
(7) An authorised person may inspect a document produced in pursuance of a notice under subsection (1) and may make copies of, or take extracts from, the document.
(8) An authorised person may, for the purposes of this Act, take, and retain for so long as is necessary for those purposes, possession of a document produced in pursuance of a notice under subsection (1) but the person otherwise entitled to possession of the document is entitled to be supplied, as soon as practicable, with a copy certified by the authorised person under his or her hand to be a true copy and the certified copy shall be received in all courts as evidence as if it were the original.
(9) Until such a certified copy of a document is supplied, the authorised person having possession of the document shall, at such times and place as he or she thinks appropriate, permit the person otherwise entitled to the document, or a person authorised by that person, to inspect and make copies of or take extracts from the document.