Commonwealth Numbered Acts Commonwealth Numbered Acts(1) A transaction or dealing affecting the property of a health benefits fund that is entered into, while the fund is under external management or terminating management, by the responsible insurer for the fund (or by a person purportedly on behalf of the fund or the responsible insurer), is void unless:
(a) the transaction or dealing has been entered into by the manager of the fund; or
(b) the manager consented to the transaction or dealing before it was entered into; or
(c) the transaction or dealing was entered into by order of the Federal Court or of the Supreme Court of a State or Territory.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a payment that an ADI makes, out of an account kept with the ADI by the responsible insurer for the fund, that is made:
(a) in good faith and in the ordinary course of the ADI's banking business; and
(b) after the external management or terminating management began but on or before the day on which:
(i) the manager gives to the ADI written notice of the appointment that began the external management or terminating management; or
(ii) the manager notifies the appointment in a national newspaper, or in a newspaper circulating in each jurisdiction where the responsible insurer has its registered office or carries on business;
whichever happens first.
(3) Subsection (1) has effect subject to any order that the Federal Court makes after the purported transaction or dealing.
(4) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person is:
(i) an officer of the responsible insurer for a health benefits fund under external management or terminating management; or
(ii) an external administrator of any of the assets of the fund; and
(b) the person:
(i) purported to enter into a transaction or dealing on behalf of the responsible insurer; or
(ii) was in any way, by act or omission, directly or indirectly concerned in, or party to, a transaction or dealing; and
(c) the transaction or dealing is, because of the operation of subsection (1), void, or would be void apart from subsection (3).
Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months or 60 penalty units, or both.
Note: If a body corporate is convicted of an offence against this subsection, subsection 4B(3) of the Crimes Act 1914 allows a court to impose a fine of up to 5 times the penalty stated above.