PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION ACT 1998 - SECT 52 False or misleading evidence or information

PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION ACT 1998 - SECT 52

    If the Commission is:

  (a)   required to hold hearings for the purposes of an inquiry; or

  (b)   holding an inquiry under section   11 in relation to a competitive neutrality complaint made under Division   2 of Part   4;

a person must not, in relation to the inquiry:

  (c)   give information to the Commission, whether orally or in writing, that the person knows to be false or misleading in a material particular; or

  (d)   give evidence at a hearing before the Commission that the person knows to be false or misleading in a material particular; or

  (e)   send to the Commission, under section   48, a statement or document containing material that the person knows to be false or misleading in a material particular.

Penalty:   Imprisonment for 6 months.

Note 1:   This penalty is a maximum penalty (section   4D, Crimes Act 1914 ). A court may impose an appropriate fine instead of or as well as imprisonment (subsection   4B(2), Crimes Act 1914 ). If a body corporate is convicted of the offence, a court may impose a fine not more than 5 times the maximum fine that the court could impose on an individual for the same offence (subsection   4B(3), Crimes Act 1914 ). Penalty units are defined in section   4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 .

Note 2:   Chapter   2 of the Criminal Code sets out the general principles of criminal responsibility.