Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2025C00060:section:2:p31
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2025C00060
Segment Type: section
Provision Reference: s 2 (pt 31/97)
Character Range: 1687156–1689921

commits an offence if:
 (a) the offender transmits, makes available, publishes or otherwise distributes material; and
 (b) the offender does so using a carriage service; and
 (c) the offender does so with the intention of inciting another person to:
 (i) unlawfully damage property on agricultural land; or
 (ii) unlawfully destroy property on agricultural land; or
 (iii) commit theft of property on agricultural land.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 5 years.
 (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to material if the material relates to a news report, or a current affairs report, that:
 (a) is in the public interest; and
 (b) is made by a person working in a professional capacity as a journalist.
 (2A) In a prosecution for an offence against subsection (1), the defendant does not bear an evidential burden in relation to the matters in subsection (2), despite subsection 13.3(3).
 (3) Subsection (1) does not apply to conduct engaged in by a person if, as a result of the operation of a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory, the person is not subject to any civil or criminal liability for the conduct.
Note 1: The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 provides that an individual is not subject to any civil or criminal liability for making a public interest disclosure.
Note 2: Section 1317AB of the Corporations Act 2001 provides that a person who makes a disclosure that qualifies for protection under Part 9.4AAA of that Act is not subject to any civil or criminal liability for making the disclosure.
Note 3: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in this subsection (see subsection 13.3(3)).
 (4) Subsection (3) does not limit section 10.5 (lawful authority).

When a person commits theft
 (5) For the purposes of this section, a person commits theft of property if:
 (a) the property belongs to another person; and
 (b) the person dishonestly appropriates the property with the intention of permanently depriving the other person of the property.
 (6) An expression used in subsection (5) and in Chapter 7 has the same meaning in that subsection as it has in that Chapter.
 (7) In a prosecution for an offence against this section, the determination of dishonesty is a matter for the trier of fact.
 (8) Sections 131.2 to 131.11 apply (with appropriate modifications) in determining whether a person commits theft of property (within the meaning of this section).

474.48  Implied freedom of political communication
 (1) This Subdivision does not apply to the extent (if any) that it would infringe any constitutional doctrine of implied freedom of political communication.
 (2) Subsection (1) does not limit the application of section 15A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 to this Act.

Division 475—Miscellaneous

475.1A