Victorian Current Acts

ESSENTIAL SERVICES COMMISSION ACT 2001 - SECT 37

    (1)     If the Commission believes that a person is capable of providing information, producing documents or giving evidence relating to a matter that constitutes, or may constitute, a contravention of an essential services requirement, the Commission may serve a notice on the person requiring the person to do one or more of the following—

        (a)     provide to the Commission, in writing signed by the person or, in the case of a body corporate, by a competent officer of the body corporate, any information or class of information specified in the notice before a specified time and in a specified manner;

        (b)     produce to the Commission a document or class of document specified in the notice that is in the person's possession, custody or control, before a specified time and in a specified manner;

        (c)     appear before the Commission at a time and place specified in the notice to do either or both of the following—

              (i)     give evidence, including by answering questions, either orally or in writing;

              (ii)     produce a document or class of document specified in the notice that is in the person's possession, custody or control.

    (2)     A person must not—

        (a)     without reasonable excuse, refuse or fail to comply with an information gathering notice under subsection (1); or

        (b)     in purported compliance with an information gathering notice under subsection (1), knowingly—

              (i)     provide false or misleading information; or

              (ii)     produce documents that are false or misleading.    

Penalty:     In the case of a natural person, 120 penalty units or 12 months imprisonment;

    In the case of a body corporate, 600 penalty units.

Note

See section 39B in relation to the protection against self-incrimination.

    (3)     The Commission may exercise, or continue to exercise, a power under subsection (1) in relation to a matter that constitutes, or may constitute, a contravention of an essential services requirement until—

        (a)     the Commission commences a proceeding in relation to the matter (other than a proceeding for an injunction, whether interim or final); or

        (b)     the close of pleadings in relation to an application by the Commission for a final injunction in relation to the matter.

S. 38 substituted by No. 41/2021 s. 5.