Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

REFERENDUM (MACHINERY PROVISIONS) ACT 1984 - SECT 62B

Use of information

  (1)   A person commits an offence if the person:

  (a)   uses information obtained from an electronic list of postal vote applicants provided by the Electoral Commissioner under section   62A; and

  (b)   the use of the information is not for a permitted purpose (see subsections   (4) and (5)).

Penalty:   100 penalty units.

Disclosure of information

  (2)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   the person discloses information; and

  (b)   the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the information has been obtained from an electronic list of postal vote applicants provided by the Electoral Commissioner under section   62A; and

  (c)   the disclosure would not be a use of the information for a permitted purpose (see subsections   (4) and (5)).

Penalty:   1,000 penalty units.

Use of information for a commercial purpose

  (3)   A person commits an offence if:

  (a)   the person uses information for a commercial purpose; and

  (b)   the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the information has been obtained from an electronic list of postal vote applicants provided by the Electoral Commissioner under section   62A.

Penalty:   1,000 penalty units.

Permitted purposes

  (4)   If the list was provided by the Electoral Commissioner to a Senator or member of the House of Representatives, the permitted purposes are:

  (a)   any purpose connected with an election or referendum; and

  (b)   research about electoral matters; and

  (c)   the monitoring of the accuracy of information contained in a Roll; and

  (d)   the performance by the Senator or member of his or her functions as a Senator or member in relation to a person included in the list.

  (5)   If the list was provided by the Electoral Commissioner to a registered political party, the permitted purposes are:

  (a)   any purpose connected with an election or referendum; and

  (b)   research about electoral matters; and

  (c)   the monitoring of the accuracy of information contained in a Roll; and

  (d)   the performance by a Senator or member of the House of Representatives, who is a member of the party, of his or her functions as a Senator or member in relation to a person included in the list.

Definitions

  (6)   In this section:

"election" , as well as having the meaning given by subsection   3(1), also includes:

  (a)   a State or Territory election; and

  (b)   a local government election.

"referendum" , as well as having the meaning given by subsection   3(1), also includes a referendum conducted under a law of a State or Territory.