Commonwealth Numbered Acts

RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS ACT 1983 No. 130, 1983 - SECT 71

71. (1) Where, by reason of circumstances of urgency, he considers it
necessary to do so, an inspector may make application for a search warrant to
a Magistrate, by telephone, in accordance with this section.

(2) Before so making application, an inspector shall prepare an information of
a kind referred to in sub-section 70 (1) or (2) that sets out the grounds on
which the issue of the warrant is being sought, but may, if it is necessary to
do so, make the application before the information has been sworn.

(3) Where a Magistrate is, upon application made under sub-section (1),
satisfied-

   (a)  after having considered the terms of the information prepared in
        accordance with sub-section (2); and

   (b)  after having received such further information (if any) as he requires
        concerning the grounds on which the issue of the warrant is being
        sought,
that there are reasonable grounds for issuing the warrant, the Magistrate
shall complete and sign such a search warrant as he would issue under
section 70 if the application had been made to him in accordance with that
section.

(4) Where a Magistrate signs a warrant under sub-section (3)-

   (a)  the Magistrate shall inform the inspector of the terms of the warrant
        signed by him and the date on which and the time at which it was
        signed, and record on the warrant his reasons for granting the
        warrant; and

   (b)  the inspector shall complete a form of warrant in the terms furnished
        to him by the Magistrate and write on it the name of the Magistrate
        and the date on which and the time at which the warrant was signed.

(5) Where an inspector completes a form of warrant in accordance with
sub-section (4), the inspector shall, not later than the day next following
the date of expiry of the warrant, forward to the Magistrate who signed the
warrant the form of warrant completed by him and the information duly sworn in
connection with the warrant.

(6) Upon receipt of the documents referred to in sub-section (5), the
Magistrate shall attach to them the warrant signed by him and deal with the
documents in the manner in which he would have dealt with the information if
the application for the warrant had been made to him in accordance with
section 70.

(7) A form of warrant duly completed by an inspector in accordance with
sub-section (4) is, if it is in accordance with the terms of the warrant
signed by the Magistrate, authority for any search, entry or seizure that the
warrant so signed authorizes.

(8) Where it is material, in any proceedings, for a court to be satisfied that
a search, entry or seizure was authorized in accordance with this section, and
the warrant signed by a Magistrate in accordance with this section authorizing
the search, entry or seizure is not produced in evidence, the court shall
assume, unless the contrary is proved, that the search, entry or seizure was
not authorized by such a warrant.
         (9) In this section, ''Magistrate'' does not include a person by
virtue only of his being a Justice of the Peace unless he holds a prescribed
office of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory.