Australian Capital Territory Current Acts Australian Capital Territory Current Acts(1) A police officer or authorised person may direct a person (the directed person ) to remove anything that covers all or part of the person's face to allow the officer or authorised person to—
(a) identify the directed person in the execution of the officer's or authorised person's functions under the road transport legislation; or
(b) carry out a test or analysis under the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977
, part 2 (Examination of people for alcohol or drugs).
(2) Subsection (3) applies if a thing a person is directed to remove is worn by the person for genuine religious or cultural reasons.
(3) The directed person may ask the officer or authorised person to allow the person to remove the thing in either or both of the following ways:
(a) in front of a police officer or an authorised person who is the same sex as the directed person;
(b) at a place or in a way (or both) that gives the directed person reasonable privacy to remove the thing.
(4) If a request is made under subsection (3), the police officer or authorised person must take reasonable steps to comply with the request.
(5) A failure to comply with subsection (4) does not affect—
(a) the validity of a thing done or not done by a police officer or authorised person under this section; or
(b) the liability of a person under subsection (6).
(6) A person commits an offence if the person—
(a) is given a direction under subsection (1); and
(b) fails to comply with the direction.
Maximum penalty: 30 penalty units.
(7) Strict liability applies to subsection (6) (b).
(8) It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against subsection (6) if the defendant proves that the defendant had a medical reason for not removing the thing covering all or part of the person's face.
Note A defendant has a legal burden in relation to the matters mentioned in s (8) (see Criminal Code
, s 59).