Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsDecision to exempt or vary
(1) A Communications Access Coordinator may:
(a) exempt a specified service provider from the obligations imposed on the service provider under this Part, either generally or in so far as they relate to a specified kind of relevant service; or
(b) vary the obligations imposed on a specified service provider under this Part, either generally or in so far as they relate to a specified kind of relevant service; or
(c) vary, in relation to a specified service provider, a period specified in section 187C, either generally or in relation to information or documents that relate to a specified kind of relevant service.
A variation must not impose obligations that would exceed the obligations to which a service provider would otherwise be subject under sections 187A and 187C.
(2) The decision must be in writing.
(3) The decision may be:
(a) unconditional; or
(b) subject to such conditions as are specified in the decision.
(4) A decision made under subsection (1) is not a legislative instrument.
Effect of applying for exemption or variation
(5) If a service provider applies in writing to a Communications Access Coordinator for a particular decision under subsection (1) relating to the service provider:
(a) a Communications Access Coordinator:
(i) must give a copy of the application to the enforcement agencies and security authorities that, in the opinion of a Communications Access Coordinator, are likely to be interested in the application; and
(ii) may give a copy of the application to the ACMA; and
(b) if a Communications Access Coordinator does not, within 60 days after the day a Communications Access Coordinator receives the application:
(i) make a decision on the application, and
(ii) communicate to the applicant the decision on the application;
a Communications Access Coordinator is taken, at the end of that period of 60 days, to have made the decision that the service provider applied for.
(6) A decision that is taken under paragraph (5)(b) to have been made in relation to a service provider that applied for the decision has effect only until a Communications Access Coordinator makes, and communicates to the service provider, a decision on the application.
Matters to be taken into account
(7) Before a Communications Access Coordinator makes a decision under subsection (1) in relation to a service provider, the Coordinator must take into account:
(a) the interests of law enforcement and national security; and
(b) the objects of the Telecommunications Act 1997 ; and
(c) the service provider's history of compliance with this Part; and
(d) the service provider's costs, or anticipated costs, of complying with this Part; and
(e) any alternative data retention or information security arrangements that the service provider has identified.
(8) The Coordinator may take into account any other matter he or she considers relevant.