New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CHILD PROTECTION (WORKING WITH CHILDREN) ACT 2012 - SECT 40

40 Power to compel production of information for monitoring or auditing purposes

(1) For the purposes of exercising its monitoring or auditing functions under this Act, the Children's Guardian may, by notice in writing, require an officer of a government agency, an employer or a body that supervises, represents or has other functions with respect to an employer to do any one or more of the following--

(a) to provide to the Children's Guardian, on or before a day specified in the notice, a statement setting out such information as is so specified relating to the matters being monitored or audited,

(b) to provide to the Children's Guardian, on or before a day specified in the notice, such documents as are so specified relating to the matters being monitored or audited.

(2) A person who--

(a) fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement of a notice under this section, or

(b) provides the Children's Guardian with information that the person knows is false or misleading in a material particular,

is guilty of an offence.

: Maximum penalty--100 penalty units, in the case of a corporation, and 50 penalty units in any other case.

(3) A notice may specify the manner in which a statement or documents may be given to the Children's Guardian.

(4) If documents are given to the Children's Guardian under this section, the Children's Guardian--

(a) may take possession of, and make copies of or take extracts from, the documents, and

(b) may keep possession of the documents for such period as is necessary for the purposes of exercising its monitoring or auditing functions, and

(c) during that period must permit them to be inspected at all reasonable times by the persons who would be entitled to inspect them if they were not in the possession of the Children's Guardian.

(5) In any proceedings for an offence against this section, the onus of proving that a person had a reasonable excuse lies with the defendant.