Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION AND ACCESS) ACT 1979 - SECT 187K

Decision to exempt or vary

             (1)  The Communications Access Co-ordinator may:

                     (a)  exempt a specified service provider from the obligations imposed on the service provider under this Part, either generally or in so far as they relate to a specified kind of relevant service; or

                     (b)  vary the obligations imposed on a specified service provider under this Part, either generally or in so far as they relate to a specified kind of relevant service; or

                     (c)  vary, in relation to a specified service provider, a period specified in section 187C, either generally or in relation to information or documents that relate to a specified kind of relevant service.

A variation must not impose obligations that would exceed the obligations to which a service provider would otherwise be subject under sections 187A and 187C.

             (2)  The decision must be in writing.

             (3)  The decision may be:

                     (a)  unconditional; or

                     (b)  subject to such conditions as are specified in the decision .

             (4)  A decision made under subsection (1) is not a legislative instrument.

Effect of applying for exemption or variation

             (5)  If a service provider applies in writing to the Communications Access Co-ordinator for a particular decision under subsection (1) relating to the service provider:

                     (a)  the Co-ordinator:

                              (i)  must give a copy of the application to the enforcement agencies and security authorities that, in the opinion of the Co-ordinator, are likely to be interested in the application; and

                             (ii)  may give a copy of the application to the ACMA; and

                     (b)  if the Co-ordinator does not, within 60 days after the day the Co-ordinator receives the application:

                              (i)  make a decision on the application, and

                             (ii)  communicate to the applicant the decision on the application;

                            the Co-ordinator is taken, at the end of that period of 60 days, to have made the decision that the service provider applied for.

             (6)  A decision that is taken under paragraph (5)(b) to have been made in relation to a service provider that applied for the decision has effect only until the Communications Access Co-ordinator makes, and communicates to the service provider, a decision on the application.

Matters to be taken into account

             (7)  Before making a decision under subsection (1) in relation to a service provider, the Communications Access Co-ordinator must take into account:

                     (a)  the interests of law enforcement and national security; and

                     (b)  the objects of the Telecommunications Act 1997 ; and

                     (c)  the service provider's history of compliance with this Part; and

                     (d)  the service provider's costs, or anticipated costs, of complying with this Part; and

                     (e)  any alternative data retention or information security arrangements that the service provider has identified.

             (8)  The Communications Access Co-ordinator may take into account any other matter he or she considers relevant.