Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) For the purposes
of this Act, an authorised officer may, at any reasonable time, do any one or
more of these —
(a)
enter and inspect any premises —
(i)
in respect of which a registrable activity is registered
under Part 8 Division 2; or
(ii)
at which a licensable activity is carried on that is
authorised by an activity licence granted under Part 8 Division 3; or
(iii)
to which an improvement notice or an enforcement order
relates;
(b)
enter and inspect any premises at which the authorised officer reasonably
suspects an offence under this Act has been or is being committed;
(c)
enter and inspect any premises that the authorised officer reasonably suspects
are used in connection with a public health risk;
(d)
enter and inspect any premises in which the authorised officer reasonably
suspects there are any documents that relate to a public health risk,
including a public health risk that might foreseeably arise from a child or
children not having been immunised against a vaccine preventable notifiable
infectious disease, or to an offence under this Act;
(e) open
and examine any equipment;
(f) take
samples of anything that the authorised officer reasonably suspects may be
connected with a public health risk or may be used as evidence that an offence
under this Act has been or is being committed, and for that purpose operate
any machinery, equipment or other thing or facilities situated on the premises
or brought into the premises by the authorised officer;
(g)
examine any documents referred to in paragraph (d), make copies of those
documents or any part of them and, for that purpose, take away and retain any
of those documents or any part of them for any time that may be reasonably
necessary;
(h)
analyse, examine or test any samples taken under paragraph (f);
(i)
stop any vehicle that the authorised officer is
authorised by this subsection to enter, or require that a person in charge of
the vehicle —
(i)
stop the vehicle; or
(ii)
not move the vehicle; or
(iii)
move the vehicle a reasonable distance to a place
specified by the authorised officer;
(j)
open, or require to be opened, any container or other thing that the
authorised officer reasonably suspects to contain anything connected with a
public health risk;
(k) make
any recording (by whatever means) of images or sounds, or both, that the
authorised officer considers necessary;
(l) take
any readings or other measurements, and make sketches or drawings or any other
type of record;
(m)
require a person to provide information or answer questions in connection with
the authorised officer’s functions under this Act or to produce any
document or thing that an authorised officer is authorised to examine under
this Act;
(n)
require a person to give the authorised officer any or all of the
person’s personal details, and, if the authorised officer reasonably
suspects that a personal detail given by the person is false, require the
person to produce evidence of the correctness of the detail;
(o)
generally make any investigations or inquiries that may be necessary to
ascertain whether a public health risk exists or an offence under this Act has
been or is being committed.
(2) An authorised
officer may at any time enter and inspect any premises if the authorised
officer reasonably suspects —
(a)
there is an immediate public health risk connected with those premises; and
(b) the
entry is necessary to enable the authorised officer to investigate, prevent,
control or abate the risk.
(3) This section does
not authorise entry into any premises, or any part of any premises, being used
solely for residential purposes, except —
(a)
where subsection (2) applies; or
(b) with
the informed consent of the occupier of the premises; or
(c)
under the authority of a warrant issued under section 249.
(4) For the purposes
of subsection (3)(b), an occupier of premises gives informed consent if the
occupier consents after being informed by the authorised officer —
(a) of
the powers that the authorised officer wants to exercise in respect of the
premises; and
(b) of
the reason why the authorised officer wants to exercise those powers; and
(c) that
the occupier can refuse to consent to the authorised officer doing so.
(5) An authorised
officer exercising a power under this section may be assisted by a police
officer or other person.
[Section 240 amended: No. 14 of 2019 s. 9.]