Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) An authorised person may apply to a magistrate for an order that he or she may retain the thing for a further period if:
(a) before the end of 120 days after the seizure; or
(b) before the end of a period previously specified in an order of a magistrate under this section;
proceedings in respect of which the thing may afford evidence have not commenced.
(2) If the magistrate is satisfied that it is necessary for an authorised person to continue to retain the thing:
(a) for the purposes of an investigation as to whether an offence against this Act has been committed; or
(b) to enable evidence of an offence against this Act to be secured for the purposes of a prosecution; or
(c) for the purposes of an investigation as to whether a civil penalty provision has been contravened; or
(d) to enable evidence of a contravention of a civil penalty provision to be secured for the purposes of civil proceedings;
the magistrate may order that an authorised person may retain the thing for a period (not being a period exceeding 3 years) specified in the order.
(3) Before making the application, the authorised person must:
(a) take reasonable steps to discover who has an interest in the retention of the thing; and
(b) if it is practicable to do so, notify each person whom the
authorised person believes to have such an interest of the proposed
application.