Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2025C00055:section:66:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2025C00055
Segment Type: section
Provision Reference: s 66 (pt 1/3)
Character Range: 445519–448168

66  Failure to give information etc.

Basic contravention
 (1) A person contravenes this subsection if:
 (a) the person is required to give information, answer a question or produce a document or record under this Act; and
 (b) the person refuses or fails to do so.
Civil penalty: 60 penalty units.

Multiple contraventions
 (1AA) A person commits an offence if:
 (a) the person is a corporation; and
 (b) the person engages in conduct that constitutes a system of conduct or a pattern of behaviour; and
 (c) the system of conduct or pattern of behaviour results in 2 or more contraventions of subsection (1).
Penalty: 300 penalty units.
 (1A) For the purposes of subsection (1B), a journalist has a reasonable excuse if giving the information, answering the question or producing the document or record would tend to reveal the identity of a person who gave information or a document or record to the journalist in confidence.
 (1B) Subsection (1) or (1AA) does not apply if the person has a reasonable excuse.
Note: A person who wishes to rely on this subsection bears an evidential burden in relation to the matter in this subsection: see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code and section 96 of the Regulatory Powers Act.
 (2) For the purposes of subsections (3) to (11) (inclusive):
document includes a record.
information includes an answer to a question.
 (3) Subject to subsections (4), (7) and (10), it is a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (1B) for an individual:
 (a) to refuse or fail to give information when so required under this Act; or
 (b) to refuse or fail to produce a document when so required under this Act;
that giving the information, or producing the document, as the case may be, might tend to incriminate the individual or make the individual liable to forfeiture or a penalty.
 (4) Subsection (3) does not apply in relation to a failure or refusal by an individual to give information, or to produce a document, on the ground that giving the information or producing the document might tend to prove his or her guilt of an offence against, or make him or her liable to forfeiture or a penalty under, a law of the Commonwealth or of a Territory, if the Director of Public Prosecutions has given the individual a written undertaking under subsection (5).
 (5) An undertaking by the Director of Public Prosecutions shall:
 (a) be an undertaking that:
 (i) information given, or a document produced, by the individual; or
 (ii) any information or document obtained as a direct or indirect consequence of the giving of the information, or the production of the document;
  will not be used in evidence in any