Queensland Consolidated Acts

AUSTRALIAN CRIME COMMISSION (QUEENSLAND) ACT 2003 - SECT 22

22 Offences of disclosure

(1) A person who is served with, or otherwise given, a summons or notice containing a notation made under section 21 must not disclose—

(a) the existence of the summons or notice or any information about it; or

(b) the existence of, or any information about, any official matter connected with the summons or notice.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—30 penalty units or 1 year’s imprisonment.

(2) Subsection (1) does not prevent the person from making a disclosure—

(a) in accordance with the circumstances, if any, specified in the notation; or

(b) to a lawyer for the purpose of obtaining legal advice or representation relating to the summons, notice or matter; or

(c) if the person is a body corporate—to an officer or agent of the body corporate for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the summons or notice; or

(d) if the person is a lawyer—for the purpose of obtaining the agreement of another person under section 23 (3) to the lawyer answering a question or producing a document at an examination before an examiner.

(3) If a disclosure is made to a person as permitted by subsection (2) or (4) , the following provisions apply—

(a) while he or she is a person of a kind to whom a disclosure is so permitted to be made, he or she must not disclose the existence of, or any information about, the summons or notice, or any official matter connected with it, except as permitted by subsection (4) ;

(b) while he or she is no longer a person of a kind to whom a disclosure is so permitted to be made, he or she must not, in any circumstances, make a record of, or disclose the existence of, the summons, notice or matter, or disclose any information about any of them.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—30 penalty units or 1 year’s imprisonment.

(4) A person to whom information has been disclosed, as permitted by subsection (2) or this subsection, may disclose that information—

(a) if the person is an officer or agent of a body corporate referred to in subsection (2) (c) —

(i) to another officer or agent of the body corporate for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the summons or notice; or

(ii) to a lawyer for the purpose of obtaining legal advice or representation relating to the summons, notice or matter; or

(b) if the person is a lawyer—for the purpose of giving legal advice, or making representations, relating to the summons, notice or matter.

(5) This section ceases to apply to a summons or notice after the sooner of—

(a) the cancellation of the notation contained in the summons or notice by section 21 (4) ; or

(b) the elapse of 5 years after the issue of the summons or notice.

(6) A reference in this section to disclosing something’s existence includes disclosing information from which a person could reasonably be expected to infer its existence.

(7) In this section—

"official matter" means any of the following (whether past, present or contingent)—

(a) the determination referred to in section 19 (4) ;

(b) an ACC operation/investigation;

(c) an examination held by an examiner;

(d) court proceedings.