New South Wales Consolidated Acts

SURVEILLANCE DEVICES ACT 2007 - SECT 7

7 Prohibition on installation, use and maintenance of listening devices

(1) A person must not knowingly install, use or cause to be used or maintain a listening device:

(a) to overhear, record, monitor or listen to a private conversation to which the person is not a party, or

(b) to record a private conversation to which the person is a party.

Maximum penalty: 500 penalty units (in the case of a corporation) or 100 penalty units or 5 years imprisonment, or both (in any other case).

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to the following:

(a) the installation, use or maintenance of a listening device in accordance with a warrant, emergency authorisation, corresponding warrant or corresponding emergency authorisation,

(b) the installation, use or maintenance of a listening device in accordance with the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 , or any other law, of the Commonwealth,

(c) the unintentional hearing of a private conversation by means of a listening device,

(d) the use of a listening device to record a refusal to consent to the recording of an interview by a member of the NSW Police Force in connection with the commission of an offence by a person suspected of having committed the offence,

(e) the use of a listening device and any enhancement equipment in relation to the device solely for the purposes of the location and retrieval of the device or equipment,

(f) the use of a listening device, being a device integrated into a Taser issued to a member of the NSW Police Force, to record the operation of the Taser and the circumstances surrounding its operation.

(3) Subsection (1) (b) does not apply to the use of a listening device by a party to a private conversation if:

(a) all of the principal parties to the conversation consent, expressly or impliedly, to the listening device being so used, or

(b) a principal party to the conversation consents to the listening device being so used and the recording of the conversation:

(i) is reasonably necessary for the protection of the lawful interests of that principal party, or

(ii) is not made for the purpose of communicating or publishing the conversation, or a report of the conversation, to persons who are not parties to the conversation.

(4) Subsection (1) does not apply to the use of a listening device to record, monitor or listen to a private conversation if:

(a) a law enforcement officer is a party to the private conversation, and

(b) the law enforcement officer is a participant (within the meaning of the Law Enforcement (Controlled Operations) Act 1997 ) in an authorised operation (within the meaning of that Act) who is using an assumed name or assumed identity.