Western Australian Current Acts

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT 2016 - SECT 190

190 .         Other emergency powers

        (1)         For emergency management purposes, an emergency officer may do all or any of these —

            (a)         enter or, if necessary, break into and enter, any premises in the emergency area;

            (b)         search any premises in the emergency area and anything found in or on the premises;

            (c)         take into any premises in the emergency area the persons, machinery, equipment or materials the emergency officer reasonably requires for exercising a power under this Division;

            (d)         authorise the transportation, storage and disposal of bodies of deceased persons anywhere (whether inside or outside the emergency area);

            (e)         contain an animal, substance or thing in the emergency area;

            (f)         remove or destroy any animal, vegetation, substance or thing in the emergency area;

            (g)         remove, dismantle, demolish or destroy any premises in the emergency area;

            (h)         disconnect or shut off any electricity, gas, water or fuel supply, or any drainage facility, or any other service, in the emergency area;

                  (i)         take and use fuel, gas, electricity or water in the emergency area;

            (j)         direct the owner or occupier or the person apparently in charge of any place in the emergency area to close that place to the public for the period specified in the direction;

            (k)         turn off, disconnect, dismantle or shut down any machinery, equipment or other thing in the emergency area;

            (l)         open a container or other thing in the emergency area;

            (m)         excavate land or form tunnels in the emergency area;

            (n)         build earthworks or temporary structures, or erect barriers, in the emergency area;

            (o)         remove to, or, subject to section 191, detain in, any place or premises that the emergency officer thinks proper any person who obstructs or threatens to obstruct emergency management activities;

            (p)         without limiting any other emergency power, exercise any serious public health incident power;

            (q)         direct a person to give the emergency officer reasonable assistance to exercise the emergency officer’s powers under this Division.

        (2)         An emergency officer may enter any premises in the emergency area without a warrant or the consent of the occupier of the premises or, in the case of a vehicle, the owner of the vehicle.

        (3)         Without limiting subsection (1)(q), an emergency officer exercising an emergency power under this Division may be assisted by a police officer or other person.

        (4)         Subsection (1)(d) overrides —

            (a)         the Cemeteries Act 1986 section 11; and

            (b)         the Cremation Act 1929 .