RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY
37
Authorised officer may require persons to provide information and produce documents
39.—(1) For the purposes of administering or enforcing this Act or determining whether this Act has been complied with, an authorised officer may (in connection with section 38 or otherwise)—
- (a) require any person to provide the authorised officer any information within the knowledge of that person; and
- (b) require any person to produce to the authorised officer any document in the person’s custody or under the person’s control in connection with the matter.
(2) The authorised officer may—
- (a) specify a time and place at which a person must provide the information or produce the document under subsection (1); and
- (b) without payment—
- (i) inspect, keep, copy or take extracts from a document produced or made available to the authorised officer under this section; and
- (ii) in relation to a document kept in electronic form, inspect, copy or take extracts from the document in legible form.
(3) Where a document is kept in electronic form, the power of the authorised officer to require the document to be produced includes the power to require the document to be made available to the authorised officer in legible form.
(4) A person who, without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails to comply with a requirement under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable—
- (a) on the first conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000; and
- (b) on a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $1,000
