Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2025C00185:section:324cg:p3
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2025C00185
Segment Type: section
Provision Reference: s 324CG (pt 3/4)
Character Range: 1249853–1252559

circumstances referred to in paragraph (b) remain in existence; and
 (ii) ASIC has not been informed in writing of those circumstances by the defendant, by another director of the company or by the audit company.
Note: If the audited body is a public company, a registered scheme or a registrable superannuation entity, the audit appointment will be terminated at the end of the period of 21 days (or a longer period that has been approved by ASIC) from the day a notice under this subsection is given if the notice is not followed up by a notice under:
(a) subsection 327B(2C) (public company); or
(b) subsection 328E(5) (public company with crowd‑sourced funding); or
(c) subsection 331AAA(2C) (registered scheme); or
(d) subsection 331AH(3) (registrable superannuation entity).
 (5B) A person is not excused from informing ASIC under subsection (5A) that the circumstances referred to in paragraph (5A)(b) exist on the ground that the information might tend to incriminate the person or expose the person to a penalty.
 (5C) However, if the person is a natural person:
 (a) the information; and
 (b) the giving of the information;
are not admissible in evidence against the person in a criminal proceeding, or any other proceeding for the recovery of a penalty, other than proceedings for an offence based on the information given being false or misleading.
 (5D) If ASIC is given a notice under paragraph (5A)(e), ASIC must, as soon as practicable after the notice is received, give a copy of the notice to the audited body.

Strict liability contravention of specific independence requirements by director of audit company
 (6) A person (the defendant) contravenes this subsection if:
 (a) an audit company engages in audit activity at a particular time; and
 (b) a relevant item of the table in subsection 324CH(1) applies at that time to a person or entity covered by subsection (9) of this section; and
 (c) the defendant is a director of the audit company at that time.
 (7) For the purposes of an offence based on subsection (6), strict liability applies to the physical elements of the offence specified in paragraphs (6)(a) and (b).
Note 1: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code.
Note 2: Subsection (8) provides a defence.
 (8) A person does not commit an offence because of a contravention of subsection (6) in relation to audit activity engaged in by an audit company at a particular time if the person has reasonable grounds to believe that the audit company had in place at that time a quality control system that provided reasonable assurance (taking into account the size and nature of the audit practice of the audit company) that the audit company and its employees