Queensland Consolidated Acts Queensland Consolidated Acts(1) A person is guilty of an offence against this Act if the person uses a listening device to overhear, record, monitor or listen to a private conversation and is liable on conviction on indictment to a maximum penalty of 40 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply--
(a) where the person using the listening device is a party to the private conversation;
(b) to the unintentional hearing of a private conversation by means of a telephone;
(c) to or in relation to the use of any listening device by--
(i) an officer employed in the service of the Commonwealth in relation to customs authorised by a warrant under the hand of the Comptroller-General of Customs under the Customs Act 1901 (Cwlth) to use a listening device in the performance of the officer's duty;
(ii) a person employed in connection with the security of the Commonwealth when acting in the performance of the person's duty under an Act passed by the Parliament of the Commonwealth relating to the security of the Commonwealth;
(d) to or in relation to the use of a listening device by a police officer or another person under a provision of an Act authorising the use of a listening device.
(3) A person referred to in subsection (2)(c) who uses a listening device to overhear, record, monitor or listen to any private conversation to which the person is not a party shall not communicate or publish the substance or meaning of that private conversation otherwise than in the performance of the person's duty.
(4) The court by which a person is convicted of an offence under this section may, by its conviction, order that any listening device used in the commission of the offence and described in the order shall be forfeited to Her Majesty and delivered up, within such period as may be specified in the order, by the person who has possession of the listening device to a person specified in the order.
(5) If an order is made under subsection (4), the person who has possession of the listening device must deliver up the listening device under the order.
Maximum penalty--20 penalty units.
(6) If a person contravenes subsection (5), whether or not a proceeding for the offence has started, a police officer may seize the listening device and deliver it up under the order.