New South Wales Consolidated Acts

STATE RECORDS ACT 1998 - SECT 73

73 Duty of confidentiality

(1) A person who acquires information in the exercise of functions under this Act must not directly or indirectly make a record of the information or divulge it to another person except in the exercise of functions under this Act.

: Maximum penalty--50 penalty units.

(2) It is not an offence under subsection (1) if, in legal proceedings, a person--

(a) discloses information in answer to a question that the person is compellable to answer, or

(b) produces a document or other thing that the person is compellable to produce.

(3) The provisions of any other Act imposing restrictions or obligations on a person as to secrecy or disclosure of information acquired in the course of the administration of that Act extend to apply to a person who, in the exercise of functions under this Act, gains access to that information as a result of the information having been acquired in the course of the administration of the other Act. For that purpose the person who gains access to the information in the course of the administration of this Act is taken to be a person engaged in the administration of the other Act.

(4) This section does not prevent or otherwise affect--

(a) the giving of access to records under Part 6 (Public access to State records after 20 years), or

(b) the preparation and dissemination of guides and finding aids.

(5) This section does not apply to the divulging of information to, or to the production of any document or other thing to, any of the following--

(a) the Independent Commission Against Corruption,

(b) the Australian Crime Commission,

(c) the New South Wales Crime Commission,

(d) the Ombudsman,

(e) any other person prescribed for the purposes of this section.