Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) An authorised officer may apply to an issuing officer for an order permitting the retention of the thing for a further period if:
(a) before the end of 60 days after the seizure; or
(b) before the end of a period previously specified in an order of an issuing officer under this section;
proceedings in respect of which the thing may afford evidence have not commenced.
(2) If the issuing officer is satisfied that it is necessary for the thing to continue to be retained:
(a) for the purposes of an investigation in respect of:
(i) an offence against this Act or an offence against the Crimes Act 1914 or the Criminal Code that relates to this Act; or
(ii) a contravention of a civil penalty provision; or
(iii) both an offence mentioned in subparagraph (i) and a civil penalty provision; or
(b) to enable evidence of an offence mentioned in paragraph (a) or a civil penalty provision to be secured for the purposes of a prosecution, civil penalty proceedings or both;
the issuing officer may order that the thing may continue to be retained for a period specified in the order (which must not exceed 3 years).
(3) Before making the application, the authorised officer must:
(a) take reasonable steps to discover who has an interest in the retention of the thing; and
(b) if it is practicable to do so, notify each person whom the
authorised officer believes to have such an interest of the proposed
application.