Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL ACT 1975 - SECT 66

Protected information

             (1)  A person who is, or has been, a member or an officer of the Tribunal is not competent, and shall not be required, to give evidence to a court relating to a matter if:

                     (a)  the giving of the evidence would be contrary to an order of the Tribunal in force under subsection 35(2) or under a similar provision of an enactment other than this Act;

                     (b)  an application has been made to the Tribunal for an order under that subsection, or under such a similar provision, concerning the matter to which the evidence would relate and the Tribunal has not determined that application; or

                     (c)  a certificate under section 36 or 36B is in force certifying that the disclosure of information concerning the matter to which the evidence would relate would be contrary to the public interest for a reason referred to in subsection 36(1) or 36B(1) and, where the certificate does not specify a reason referred to in paragraph 36(1)(a) or (b), or 36B(1)(a), as the case may be, the Tribunal has not made information concerning that matter available to the parties to a proceeding before the Tribunal and, in the case of information contained in a document, has not permitted the parties to such a proceeding to inspect the document.

Protected documents

             (2)  A person who is, or has been, a member or an officer of the Tribunal shall not be required to produce in a court a document given to the Tribunal in connexion with a proceeding if:

                     (a)  the production of the document would be contrary to an order of the Tribunal in force under subsection 35(2) or under a similar provision of an enactment other than this Act;

                     (b)  an application has been made to the Tribunal for an order under that subsection, or under such a similar provision, in relation to the document and the Tribunal has not determined that application; or

                     (c)  a certificate under section 36 or 36B is in force certifying that the disclosure of matter contained in the document would be contrary to the public interest for a reason referred to in subsection 36(1) or 36B(1) and, where the certificate does not specify a reason referred to in paragraph 36(1)(a) or (b), or 36B(1)(a), as the case may be, the Tribunal has not permitted the parties to a proceeding before the Tribunal to inspect the document.

Tribunal proceedings

             (3)  A person who is, or has been, a member of the Tribunal shall not be required to give evidence to a court in relation to any proceedings before the Tribunal.

Definitions

             (4)  In this section:

"court" includes any tribunal, authority or person having power to require the production of documents or the answering of questions.

"enactment" includes a Norfolk Island enactment.

"produce" includes permit access to.

Note:          Section 81 of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 contains additional provisions relating to secrecy that apply to members and officers of the Tribunal.