Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A03930:body:0:p3
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A03930
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 4936–7548

a Department or a Commonwealth instrumentality;

the court may, subject to this section, order the Secretary to the Department, or an appropriate authority of the Commonwealth instrumentality, as the case may be, to provide, to the Registrar of the court, such information relating to the whereabouts of the child, or the person, as the case may be, as is contained in or comes into the records of the Department or instrumentality.

"(5) A court shall not, under subsection (4), order a person to provide information unless a copy of the application for the order has been served on him or her in accordance with the Rules of Court.

"(6) If an application for an order under subsection (4) relates to more than one Commonwealth body, the court shall not make the order against more than one of those bodies unless the court considers that, because of exceptional circumstances, the order should be made against more than one of those bodies.

"(7) If a court considers, in relation to a Commonwealth body in relation to which it proposes to make an order under subsection (4), that:

    (a) the information sought by the order is only likely to be contained in records of the body of a particular kind; and

    (b) to apply the order to all of the records of the body would place an unreasonable burden on the body's resources;

the court may state in the order that the order applies only to the body's records of that kind.

"(8) If a court, under subsection (4), orders a person to provide information that is contained in, or that comes into, the records of a Commonwealth body, then:

    (a) the order operates for 12 months;

    (b) subject to paragraph (b), the person shall provide the information as soon as practicable, or as soon as practicable after it comes into the records of the Commonwealth body, as the case requires; and

    (c) the person is not obliged to cause the records of the Commonwealth body to be searched for that information more often than every 3 months.

"(9) The person to whom an order is addressed shall comply with the order in spite of anything contained in any other law.

"(10) Information provided to the Registrar of a court pursuant to this section shall not be divulged by any person who has obtained the information because of the provision of the information to the Registrar except:

    (a) to the Registrar of another court;

    (b) to a person to whom the warrant referred to in paragraph (1) (a) or (4) (a) is addressed; or

    (c) with leave of the court, to another person.

    "(11) In this section:

    'appropriate authority', in relation to a