Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

FAIR WORK (REGISTERED ORGANISATIONS) ACT 2009 - SECT 260

  (1)   An auditor, or a person authorised by an auditor for the purposes of this section, is entitled to attend, and be heard at, any part of a meeting of a reporting unit, or the committee of management of a reporting unit, at which:

  (a)   the report of the auditor, or any general purpose financial report to which the report relates, is to be presented or considered; or

  (b)   there is to be conducted any business of the meeting that relates to:

  (i)   the auditor in that capacity; or

  (ii)   a person authorised by the auditor, in the capacity of a person so authorised.

  (2)   Where an auditor authorises a person for the purposes of this section, the auditor must serve on the reporting unit a notification, which sets out the name and address of the person.

  (3)   An officer, employee or member of an organisation or branch commits an offence if he or she hinders or obstructs the auditor of a reporting unit from attending a part of the meeting that the auditor is entitled to attend.

Penalty:   30 penalty units.

  (4)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   an auditor of a reporting unit attends a part of a meeting that the auditor is entitled to attend; and

  (b)   the person chairs the meeting; and

  (c)   in the course of the part of the meeting, the auditor indicates to the person chairing the meeting that the auditor wishes to be heard; and

  (d)   the person fails, as soon as practicable after having received the indication, to afford to the auditor an opportunity to be heard.

Penalty:   20 penalty units.

  (5)   It is a defence to an offence against a subsection of this section if the person did not know, and could not reasonably have known, that the auditor, or the person authorised by the auditor, to whom the charge relates was a person in relation to whom the subsection applied.

Note:   A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters mentioned in subsection   (5).

  (6)   In a prosecution for an offence against this section, it is not necessary to prove that the defendant knew that the auditor was an auditor.

  (7)   In subsections   (3) and (4):

"auditor" includes a person authorised by the auditor for the purposes of this section.