New South Wales Consolidated Acts

STOCK DISEASES ACT 1923 - SECT 20J

20J Providing false or misleading information

(1) A person must not, in making a statement or providing information for the purposes of this Act, make a statement or provide information to the Minister or a person engaged in the administration of this Act, or to any other person, that is false or misleading in a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units.

(2) A person must not, in connection with a sale or disposition or proposed sale or disposition of stock or artificial breeding material, make a statement or provide information in relation to:

(a) the presence or absence of infection in stock, artificial breeding material, carcasses or land, or

(b) any matter relevant to an assessment of the likelihood of the exposure of stock or artificial breeding material to infection, or

(c) any other matter prescribed by the regulations,

that is false or misleading in a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 200 penalty units.

(2A) A person must not, in or in connection with an arrangement or agreement or proposed arrangement or agreement for the agistment of stock or for the use of land for grazing of stock (including any lease or proposed lease of land for grazing of stock), make a statement or provide information in relation to:

(a) the presence or absence of infection in stock, carcasses or land, or

(b) any matter relevant to an assessment of the likelihood of the exposure of stock to infection, or

(c) any other matter prescribed by the regulations,

that is false or misleading in a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 200 penalty units.

(3) It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against this section if the defendant satisfies the court:

(a) in the case of a prosecution in relation to making a false statement or providing false information, that the defendant reasonably believed that the statement or information was true, or

(b) in the case of a prosecution in relation to making a misleading statement or providing misleading information, that the defendant had no intention, in making the statement or providing the information, to mislead.