COMPANIES (ADMINISTRATION) ACT 1981 - SECT 15 Secrecy

This legislation has been repealed.

COMPANIES (ADMINISTRATION) ACT 1981 - SECT 15

15 Secrecy

(1) Subject to this section, a person who is, or has at any time been, the Commissioner or a person appointed for the purposes of this Act or of any other Act that confers functions or powers on the Commission or authorised to perform or exercise any function or power of the Commission under this or any other Act or any such function or power on behalf of the Commission shall not, except to the extent necessary to perform his or her official duties, or to perform or exercise such a function or power, either directly or indirectly, make a record of, or divulge or communicate to any person, any information that is or was acquired by the person by reason of his or her being or having been so appointed or authorised, or make use of any such information, for any purpose other than the performance of his or her official duties or the performance or exercise of that function or power.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 1 year, or both.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) precludes a person from:

(a) producing a document to a court in the course of criminal proceedings or in the course of any proceedings under any prescribed Act,

(b) divulging or communicating to a court in the course of any proceedings referred to in paragraph (a) any matter or thing coming under the person's notice in the performance of the person's official duties or in the performance of a function or the exercise of a power referred to in that subsection,

(c) producing a document or divulging or communicating information to a person to whom, in the opinion of the Commission, it is in the public interest that the document be produced or the information be divulged or communicated, or

(d) producing a document or divulging or communicating information that is required or permitted by any Act, or any Act of the Commonwealth or of another State, to be produced, divulged or communicated, as the case may be.

(3) This section does not apply in circumstances where section 15 of the National Companies and Securities Commission (State Provisions) Act 1981 applies.