Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsThe Crimes Act 1914 has effect as if subsections 3E(1) and (2) of that Act were substituted with the following subsections:
"(1) An issuing officer may issue a warrant to search premises if the officer is satisfied, by information on oath or affirmation, that:
(a) there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that there is, or there will be within the next 72 hours, any evidential material at the premises; and
(b) if the search would not be for the purposes of investigating an offence--there are reasonable grounds for believing that, if a person was served with a summons to produce the evidential material, the material might be concealed, lost, mutilated or destroyed.
(2) An issuing officer may issue a warrant authorising an ordinary search or a frisk search of a person if the officer is satisfied, by information on oath or affirmation, that:
(a) there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person has in their possession, or will within the next 72 hours have in their possession, any evidential material; and
(b) if the search would not be for the purposes of investigating an offence--there are reasonable grounds for believing that, if the person was served with a summons to produce the evidential material, the material might be concealed, lost, mutilated or destroyed.
(2A) Subsection (2B) applies if the warrant is to search:
(a) a person (the journalist ) who works in a professional capacity as a journalist; or
(b) the employer of the journalist (working in that capacity); or
(c) premises occupied or controlled by the journalist or the employer (in the capacities covered by paragraphs (a) and (b)).
(2B) In deciding whether to issue the warrant, the issuing officer must have regard to whether the public interest in issuing the warrant outweighs:
(a) the public interest in protecting the confidentiality of the identity of the journalist's source; and
(b) the public interest in facilitating the exchange of information between journalists and members of the public so as to facilitate reporting of matters in the public interest."