Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) A person (the defendant ) contravenes this subsection if:
(a) one of the following imposes a requirement in relation to the audit of a financial report of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation:
(i) an applied provision of the Corporations Act;
(ii) regulations made for the purposes of section 333- 15;
(iii) a determination by the Registrar under section 336-1 or 336-5; and
(b) the requirement is that, if the auditor is an audit firm, the audit firm must have a member or members who have particular qualifications or experience; and
(c) at a particular time, a firm acts as auditor in relation to the financial report or a part of it; and
(d) at that time, the firm does not have a member or members who satisfy the requirement referred to in paragraph (b); and
(e) the defendant is a member of the firm at that time; and
(f) the defendant is aware of the circumstances referred to in paragraphs (c) and (d) at that time.
Penalty: 25 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.
(2) A person (the defendant ) contravenes this subsection if:
(a) one of the following imposes a requirement in relation to the audit of a financial report of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation:
(i) an applied provision of the Corporations Act;
(ii) regulations made for the purposes of section 333- 15;
(iii) a determination by the Registrar under section 336-1 or 336-5; and
(b) the requirement is that, if the auditor is an audit firm, the audit firm must have a member or members who have particular qualifications or experience; and
(c) at a particular time, a firm acts as auditor in relation to the financial report or a part of it; and
(d) at that time, the firm does not satisfy the requirement referred to in paragraph (b); and
(e) the defendant is a member of the firm at that time.
(3) For the purposes of an offence based on subsection (2), strict liability applies to the physical elements of the offence specified in paragraphs (2)(a) and (b).
Note 1: For strict liability , see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .
Note 2: Subsection (4) provides a defence.
(4) A member of an audit firm does not commit an offence at a particular time because of a contravention of subsection (2) if the member either:
(a) does not know at that time of the circumstances that constitute the contravention of subsection (2); or
(b) does know of those circumstances at that time but takes all reasonable steps to correct the contravention as soon as possible after the member becomes aware of those circumstances.
Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in subsection (4) (see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code ).