Queensland Consolidated Acts

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ACT 1991 - SECT 156

156 Commissioner may obtain information and documents

(1) If the commissioner has reason to believe that a person—

(a) published or displayed an advertisement that contravenes the Act ; or

(b) is able to provide information or produce documents relevant to an investigation;

the commissioner may direct the person in writing—

(c) to give to the commissioner by writing signed by the person, or, in the case of a body corporate, by an officer of the body corporate, the specified information; or

(d) to give to the commissioner the specified documents or documents of a specified class;

at such place, and within such reasonable period or on such reasonable day and at such time, as are specified in the direction.

(2) If documents are given to the commissioner, the commissioner—

(a) may take possession of, and may copy or take extracts from, the documents; and

(b) may retain possession of the documents for such reasonable period as is necessary for the investigation to which the documents relate; and

(c) during that period must allow a person who, if they were not in the possession of the commissioner, would be entitled to inspect any of the documents, to inspect that document at all reasonable times.

(3) The commissioner may enforce the direction by filing a copy of it with a court of competent jurisdiction.

(4) The direction is then enforceable as if it were an order of the court.

(5) A person is not required to give information or a document if the person objects on the ground of legal professional privilege that the person would be entitled to claim if—

(a) the person were a witness in a prosecution for an offence in the Supreme Court; and

(b) the person were required to give the information or document in the prosecution.