Despite any other provision of this or any other Act, if an offender, who is before a court that is to sentence the offender and is constituted by a magistrate, has pleaded guilty to, or been found guilty of, an offence, and the magistrate is of the opinion that the court should consider making a drug treatment order –

(a) the magistrate may refer the offence to another magistrate for sentencing; and

(b) the magistrate may provide, to the magistrate to whom the sentencing is referred, the information, in relation to the offender and the offence, that the magistrate thinks fit; and

(c) any sentence imposed by the magistrate to whom an offence is referred under paragraph (a) has for all purposes the same effects and consequences as if it had been passed by the magistrate who presided at the hearing or trial, or received the plea, in relation to the offence.