Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the Secretary requests, in writing, the person to give all reasonable assistance in connection with an application for a civil penalty order under Part 4 of the Regulatory Powers Act, as that Part applies in relation to the civil penalty provisions of this Act; and
(b) the person fails to comply with the request.
Note: This section does not abrogate or affect the law relating to legal professional privilege, or any other immunity, privilege or restriction that applies to the disclosure of information, documents or other things.
(2) A request under subsection (1) is not a legislative instrument.
(3) The Secretary can request a person to assist under subsection (1) only if:
(a) it appears to the Secretary that the person is unlikely to have:
(i) contravened the civil penalty provision to which the application relates; or
(ii) committed an offence constituted by the same, or substantially the same, conduct as the conduct to which the application relates; and
(b) the Secretary suspects or believes that the person can give information relevant to the application.
(4) The Secretary cannot request a person to assist under subsection (1) if the person is or has been a lawyer for the person suspected of contravening the civil penalty provision to which the application relates.
(5) The Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) may order a person to comply with a request under subsection (1) in a specified way. Only the Secretary may apply to the court for an order under this subsection.
(6) For the purposes of this section, it does not matter whether the application for the civil penalty order under the Regulatory Powers Act has actually been made.