Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

REFERENDUM (MACHINERY PROVISIONS) ACT 1984 - SECT 121

             (1)  A person shall not print, publish or distribute or cause, permit or authorize to be printed, published or distributed an advertisement, handbill, pamphlet or notice relating to a referendum and intended or calculated to affect the result of the referendum unless:

                     (a)  the name and address of the person who authorized the advertisement, handbill, pamphlet or notice appears at the end thereof; and

                     (b)  in the case of an advertisement, handbill, pamphlet or notice that is printed otherwise than in a newspaper--the name and place of business of the printer appears at the end thereof.

          (1A)  A person must not produce, publish or distribute or cause, permit or authorise to be produced, published or distributed a video recording relating to a referendum and intended or calculated to affect the result of the referendum unless the name and address of the person who authorised the video recording appears at the end of it.

       (1AB)  Subject to subsection (1AC), a person must not print, publish or distribute or cause, permit or authorise to be printed, published or distributed an advertisement relating to a referendum and intended or calculated to affect the result of the referendum that takes up the whole or part of each of 2 opposing pages of a newspaper unless, in addition to fulfilling the requirement under paragraph (1)(a) that the name and address of the person who authorised the advertisement appear at the end of it, such name and address also appears on the other page, or the part of the other page, taken up by the advertisement.

       (1AC)  Subsection (1AB) does not apply to an advertisement of the kind referred to in that subsection:

                     (a)  that is contained within:

                              (i)  a broken or unbroken border; or

                             (ii)  broken or unbroken lines extending across, or partly across, the top and bottom of the advertisement; or

                            (iii)  a broken or unbroken line extending along, or partly along, each side of the advertisement; or

                     (b)  that is printed so that to read one or more lines of the text of the advertisement it is necessary to read across both pages.

             (2)  A person who contravenes subsection (1), (1A) or (1AB) is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction:

                     (a)  if the offender is a natural person--by a fine not exceeding $1,000; or

                     (b)  if the offender is a body corporate--by a fine not exceeding $5,000.

             (3)  Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to:

                     (a)  a car sticker, T-shirt, lapel button, lapel badge, pen, pencil or balloon; or

                     (b)  an article included in a prescribed class of articles.

             (4)  Nothing in paragraph (3)(a) shall be taken, by implication, to limit the generality of regulations that may be made by virtue of paragraph (3)(b).

             (5)  In this section:

"address" of a person means an address, including a full street address and suburb or locality, at which the person can usually be contacted during the day. It does not include a post office box.