New South Wales Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

NATIONAL CRIME AUTHORITY (STATE PROVISIONS) ACT 1984 - SECT 19

19 Failure of witness to attend and answer questions

(1) A person served, as prescribed, with a summons to appear as a witness at a hearing before the Authority shall not, without reasonable excuse:

(a) fail to attend as required by the summons, or

(b) fail to attend from day to day unless excused, or released from further attendance, by a member.

(2) A person appearing as a witness at a hearing before the Authority shall not, without reasonable excuse:

(a) when required pursuant to section 17 either to take an oath or make an affirmation--refuse or fail to comply with the requirement,

(b) refuse or fail to answer a question that the person is required to answer by the member presiding at the hearing, or

(c) refuse or fail to produce a document or thing that the person was required to produce by a summons under this Act served as prescribed.

(3) Where:

(a) a legal practitioner is required to answer a question or produce a document at a hearing before the Authority, and

(b) the answer to the question would disclose, or the document contains, a privileged communication made by or to the legal practitioner in the capacity of a legal practitioner,

the legal practitioner is entitled to refuse to comply with the requirement unless the person to whom or by whom the communication was made agrees to the legal practitioner complying with the requirement but, where the legal practitioner refuses to comply with the requirement, the legal practitioner shall, if so required by the member presiding at the hearing, furnish to the Authority the name and address of the person to whom or by whom the communication was made.

(4) Subject to subsections (5), (7), (9) and (11), it is a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (2) for a natural person:

(a) to refuse or fail to answer a question put to the person at a hearing before the Authority, or

(b) to refuse or fail to produce a document or thing that the person was required to produce at a hearing before the Authority,

that the answer to the question, or the production of the document or thing, as the case may be, might tend to incriminate the person.

(5) It is not a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (2) for a person:

(a) to refuse or fail to answer a question put to the person at a hearing before the Authority, or

(b) to refuse or fail to produce a document or thing that the person was required to produce at a hearing before the Authority,

that the answer to the question or the production of the document or thing might tend to prove the person's guilt of an offence against a law of the State if the Attorney-General, or a person authorized by the Attorney-General, being the person holding a prescribed office, has given to the first-mentioned person an undertaking in writing that any answer given or document or thing produced, as the case may be, or any information, document or thing obtained as a direct or indirect consequence of the answer or the production of the first-mentioned document or thing, will not be used in evidence in any proceedings against that person for an offence against a law of the State other than proceedings in respect of the falsity of evidence given by that person and the Attorney-General, or the person so authorized, states in the undertaking:

(c) that, in his or her opinion, there are special grounds that in the public interest require that answers be given or documents or things be produced by the first-mentioned person, and

(d) the general nature of those grounds.

(6) The Authority may recommend to the Attorney-General that a person who has been or is to be served with a summons to appear as a witness at a hearing before the Authority or to produce a document or thing at a hearing before the Authority be given an undertaking in accordance with subsection (5).

(7) It is not a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (2) for a person:

(a) to refuse or fail to answer a question put to the person at a hearing before the Authority, or

(b) to refuse or fail to produce a document or thing that the person was required to produce at a hearing before the Authority,

that the answer to the question or the production of the document or thing might tend to prove the person's guilt of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth or of a Territory if the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Commonwealth has given to the person an undertaking in writing that any answer given or document or thing produced, as the case may be, or any information, document or thing obtained as a direct or indirect consequence of the answer or the production of the first-mentioned document or thing, will not be used in evidence in any proceedings against the person for an offence against a law of the Commonwealth or of a Territory other than proceedings in respect of the falsity of evidence given by the person and the Director of Public Prosecutions states in the undertaking:

(c) that, in his or her opinion, there are special grounds that in the public interest require that answers be given or documents or things be produced by the person, and

(d) the general nature of those grounds.

(8) The Authority may recommend to the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Commonwealth that a person who has been or is to be served with a summons to appear as a witness at a hearing before the Authority or to produce a document or thing at a hearing before the Authority be given an undertaking in accordance with subsection (7).

(9) It is not a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (2) for a person:

(a) to refuse or fail to answer a question put to the person at a hearing before the Authority, or

(b) to refuse or fail to produce a document or thing that the person was required to produce at a hearing before the Authority,

that the answer to the question or the production of the document or thing might tend to prove the person's guilt of an offence against a law of another State if the Attorney-General of that State, or a person authorized by that Attorney-General, being the person holding the office of Director of Public Prosecutions, or a similar office, of that State, has given to the first-mentioned person an undertaking in writing that any answer given or document or thing produced, as the case may be, or any information, document or thing obtained as a direct or indirect consequence of the answer or the production of the first-mentioned document or thing, will not be used in evidence in any proceedings against that person for an offence against a law of that State other than proceedings in respect of the falsity of evidence given by that person and the Attorney-General of that State, or the person so authorized, states in the undertaking:

(c) that, in his or her opinion, there are special grounds that in the public interest require that answers be given or documents or things be produced by the first-mentioned person, and

(d) the general nature of those grounds.

(10) The Authority may recommend to the Attorney-General of another State that a person who has been or is to be served with a summons to appear as a witness at a hearing before the Authority or to produce a document or thing at a hearing before the Authority be given an undertaking in accordance with subsection (9).

(11) For the purposes of subsection (2):

(a) it is not a reasonable excuse for a corporation to refuse or fail to produce a document or thing that the production of the document or thing might tend to incriminate the corporation, and

(b) it is not a reasonable excuse for a natural person to refuse or fail to produce a document that is, or forms part of, a record of an existing or past business (not being, in the case of a person who is or has been an employee, a document that sets out details of earnings received by the person in respect of the person's employment and does not set out any other information) that the production of the document might tend to incriminate the person.

(12) Subsections (5), (7), (9) and (11) do not apply where the offence in respect of which the answer to a question or the production of a document or thing, as the case requires, might tend to incriminate a person is an offence with which the person has been charged and the charge has not been finally dealt with by a court or otherwise disposed of.

(13) A person who contravenes subsection (1), (2) or (3) is guilty of an offence punishable, upon conviction, by a fine not exceeding 10 penalty units or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 6 months.