Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts(1) If the ACAT is not satisfied, by evidence on affidavit or otherwise, that the document is an exempt document it may require the document to be produced for inspection by members of the ACAT.
(2) If, upon the inspection, the ACAT is satisfied that the document is an exempt document, the ACAT shall return the document to the person by whom it was produced without permitting any person other than a member of the ACAT as constituted for the purposes of the proceeding, or a member of the staff of the ACAT in the course of the performance of his or her duties as such a member, to have access to the document or disclosing the contents of the document to any such person.
(3) The ACAT—
(a) may require the production, for inspection by members of the ACAT as constituted for the purposes of the proceeding, of an exempt document for the purpose of determining whether it is practicable for an agency or a Minister to grant access to a copy of the document with such deletions as to make the copy not an exempt document; and
(b) where an exempt document is produced under such a requirement—shall, after inspection of the document by the members of the ACAT as constituted for the purposes of the proceeding, return the document to the person by whom it was produced without permitting any person other than such a member of the ACAT, or a member of the staff of the ACAT in the course of the performance of his or her duties as such a member, to have access to the document or disclosing the contents of the document to any such person.
(4) Notwithstanding subsections (1) to (3) but subject to subsection (5), the ACAT is not empowered, in any proceedings other than proceedings to determine a question referred to in section 62 (4) or (5), to require—
(a) the production of a document in respect of which a certificate under section 37A is in force; or
(b) the giving of information in respect of which a certificate under section 37A (4) is in force.
(5) Where a certificate of a kind referred to in subsection (4) (a) identifies a part of the document concerned in the manner provided in section 37A (3), subsection (4) does not prevent the ACAT from requiring the production, in any proceedings before the ACAT under this Act in relation to the document, of a copy of so much of the document as is not included in the part or parts so identified.
(6) Subsections (1), (2) and (3) apply in relation to a document in the possession of a Minister that is claimed by the Minister not to be an official document of the Minister as if references in those subsections to an exempt document were references to a document in the possession of a Minister that is not an official document of the Minister.
(7) Nothing in subsection (1), (2) or (3) prevents the ACAT from causing a document (a subject document ) produced under 1 or more of the subsections to be sent to the Supreme Court under the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2008 , section 87 (Sending documents and things to Supreme Court).
(8) However, if a subject document is sent to the Supreme Court, the court must ensure that the contents of the document are not disclosed, other than in accordance with this Act, to any person other than—
(a) a member of the court constituted for the proceeding before the court; or
(b) a member of the staff of the court in the course of the performance of the staff member's functions.