New South Wales Consolidated Acts

APIARIES ACT 1985 - SECT 38

38 General powers of inspection

(1) An inspector may, for the purposes of exercising any function imposed or conferred on inspectors by any other provision of this Act, enter any premises on which the inspector believes on reasonable grounds that any bees, beehives or appliances are kept or any apiary products are produced, kept or sold and inspect those premises and any bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances kept there.

(1A) The inspector may enter premises with such persons, vehicles and equipment as the inspector considers are necessary to enable or assist the inspector to exercise the function concerned.

(1B) An inspector who enters premises under subsection (1) may:

(a) require the person apparently in charge of the premises, or of any activity connected with beekeeping that is carried on at the premises, to produce any records or documents under the person’s control that relate to beekeeping, and

(b) make copies of, or take extracts from, the records or documents so produced (and, for that purpose, remove and retain the records and documents for such period as is reasonably necessary).

(2) At any place on or near:

(a) the boundary of New South Wales,

(b) where an order is in force under section 23 (1) declaring an area to be an infected area-the boundary of that area,

(c) where an order is in force under section 26 (1) prohibiting bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances from being imported or brought into any specified area of New South Wales-the boundary of that specified area, or

(d) where specified land is for the time being declared under section 27 (1) to be a quarantine area-the boundary of that area,

an inspector may display a traffic sign of an approved kind so as to be clearly visible to the driver or person in charge of any vehicle approaching that place or may signal to the driver or person in charge of any such vehicle that the driver or person is required to cause the vehicle to stop.

(3) In subsection (2), a reference to a place includes any kind of thoroughfare whether public or not.

(4) Whenever the driver or person in charge of a vehicle approaches a sign displayed in accordance with subsection (2) or an inspector by any other means signals to any such driver or person to cause the vehicle to stop, that driver or person shall cause the vehicle to stop within a reasonable distance of the sign or the inspector and shall ensure that the vehicle remains stationary so that the inspector may exercise in respect of the vehicle the inspector’s powers.

(5) Any person who fails to comply with subsection (4) is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding 10 penalty units.

(6) Where by virtue of a provision of this Act an inspector has power to seize or detain bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances in any specified circumstances and an inspector suspects on reasonable grounds that a package found in those circumstances contains any such bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances, the inspector may open the package for inspection or may require the person in charge of the package to open it for inspection, in which case that person shall comply with that requirement.

(7) Where an inspector seizes bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances in accordance with a provision of this Act, the inspector shall, except as provided by subsection (8), remove them to a quarantine area or other secure place pending their disposal under this Act.

(8) If, on seizing any bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances in accordance with a provision of this Act, an inspector forms the opinion on reasonable grounds that they are infected with a prescribed disease to such an extent as to make it necessary to destroy them immediately, the inspector may cause them to be so destroyed.

(9) If:

(a) no application for the review of a seizure of bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances carried out in accordance with a provision of this Act is made under section 35 within the period prescribed by or under the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 for making applications under that section, or

(b) such an application is made within that period but is subsequently withdrawn, or

(c) such an application is made within that period but, on the hearing of the application, the action of the inspector in seizing those bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances is affirmed,

the bees, beehives, apiary products or appliances must:

(d) at the expiry of that period, or

(e) on the withdrawal of the application, or

(f) on the decision of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal in respect of the application being notified to the applicant,

be forfeited to the Crown and are to be disposed of in such manner as the Director-General thinks fit.

(10) Any person who fails to comply with a requirement made under subsection (1B) (a) or (6) shall be deemed to be guilty of intentionally obstructing or hindering an inspector under section 40.