New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ROYAL COMMISSION (POLICE SERVICE) ACT 1994 - SECT 30

30 Secrecy

(s 111 ICAC Act)

(1) This section applies to:

(a) a person who is or was the Commissioner or an officer of the Commission, and

(b) a person who is or was a person who assists, or performs services for or on behalf of, a legal practitioner appointed by the Crown to assist the Commission in the exercise of the legal practitioner’s functions as counsel to the Commission.

(2) A person to whom this section applies must not, directly or indirectly, except for the purposes of this Act or the 1923 Act or the person’s Royal Commission functions or otherwise in connection with the exercise of the person’s Royal Commission functions:

(a) make a record of any information, or

(b) divulge or communicate to any person any information,

being information acquired by the person by reason of, or in the course of, the exercise of the person’s Royal Commission functions.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(3) A person to whom this section applies cannot be required:

(a) to produce in any court any document or other thing that has come into the person’s possession, custody or control by reason of, or in the course of, the exercise of the person’s Royal Commission functions, or

(b) to divulge or communicate to any court any matter or thing that has come to the person’s notice in the exercise of the person’s Royal Commission functions,

except for the purposes of a prosecution or disciplinary proceedings instituted as a result of the Commission’s inquiry.

(4) Despite this section, a person to whom this section applies may divulge any such information:

(a) for the purposes of the Commission’s inquiry and report or otherwise for the purposes of and in accordance with this Act or the 1923 Act, or

(b) for the purposes of a prosecution or disciplinary proceedings instituted as a result of the Commission’s inquiry, or

(c) in accordance with a direction of the Commissioner, if the Commissioner certifies that it is necessary to do so in the public interest, or

(d) to any prescribed authority or person.

(5) An authority or person to whom information is divulged under subsection (4), and any person or employee under the control of that authority or person, is subject to the same rights, privileges, obligations and liabilities under subsections (2) and (3) in respect of that information, as if he or she were a person to whom this section applies and had acquired the information in the exercise of the person’s Royal Commission functions.

(6) In this section:
"court" includes any tribunal, authority or person having power to require the production of documents or the answering of questions.
"produce" includes permit access to.
"Royal Commission functions" means functions arising under or in connection with this Act or the 1923 Act or any commission establishing or conferring functions on the Commission or conferring functions on the Commission or the Commissioner.