Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL ACT 1918 - SECT 189B

Use of information

  (1)   A person commits an offence if the person:

  (a)   uses information obtained from an electronic list of postal vote applicants provided by the Electoral Commissioner under section   189A; and

  (b)   the use of the information is not for a permitted purpose (see subsections   (4) and (5)).

Penalty:   100 penalty units.

Disclosure of information

  (2)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   the person discloses information; and

  (b)   the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the information has been obtained from an electronic list of postal vote applicants provided by the Electoral Commissioner under section   189A; and

  (c)   the disclosure would not be a use of the information for a permitted purpose (see subsections   (4) and (5)).

Penalty:   1,000 penalty units.

Use of information for a commercial purpose

  (3)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   the person uses information for a commercial purpose; and

  (b)   the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the information has been obtained from an electronic list of postal vote applicants provided by the Electoral Commissioner under section   189A.

Penalty:   1,000 penalty units.

Permitted purposes

  (4)   If the list was provided by the Electoral Commissioner to a candidate in a Senate or House of Representatives election, the permitted purposes are:

  (a)   any purpose connected with an election or referendum; and

  (b)   research about election and ballot matters; and

  (c)   the monitoring of the accuracy of information contained in a Roll; and

  (d)   the performance by the candidate of his or her functions if elected as a Senator or member in relation to a person included in the list.

  (5)   If the list was provided by the Electoral Commissioner to a registered political party, the permitted purposes are:

  (a)   any purpose connected with an election or referendum; and

  (b)   research about election and ballot matters; and

  (c)   the monitoring of the accuracy of information contained in a Roll; and

  (d)   the performance by a Senator or member of the House of Representatives, who is a member of the party, of his or her functions as a Senator or member in relation to a person included in the list.

Definitions

  (6)   In this section:

"election" means:

  (a)   a Senate election; or

  (b)   a House of Representatives election; or

  (c)   a State or Territory election; or

  (d)   a local government election.

"referendum" means a referendum conducted under a law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory.