New South Wales Consolidated Acts

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LAW ENFORCEMENT (POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES) ACT 2002 - SECT 124

Right of foreign national to communicate with consular official

124 Right of foreign national to communicate with consular official

(cf Crimes Act 1900 , s 356O)

(1) This section applies to a detained person or protected suspect who is not an Australian citizen or a permanent Australian resident.
(2) Before any investigative procedure in which a person to whom this section applies is to participate starts, the custody manager for the person must inform the person orally and in writing that he or she may--
(a) communicate, or attempt to communicate, with a consular official of the country of which the person is a citizen, and
(b) ask the consular official to attend at the place where the person is being detained to enable the person to consult with the consular official.
(3) If the person wishes to communicate with such a consular official, the custody manager must, as soon as practicable--
(a) give the person reasonable facilities to enable the person to do so, and
(b) allow the person to do so in circumstances in which, so far as is practicable, the communication will not be overheard.
(4) The custody manager must defer for a reasonable period any investigative procedure in which the person is to participate--
(a) to allow the person to make, or attempt to make, the communication referred to in subsection (2), and
(b) if the person has asked any consular official so communicated with to attend at the place where the person is being detained--
(i) to allow the consular official to arrive at that place, and
(ii) to allow the person to consult with the consular official.
(5) If the person has asked a consular official communicated with to attend at the place where the person is being detained, the custody manager must allow the person to consult with the consular official in private and must provide reasonable facilities for that consultation.
(6) An investigative procedure is not required to be deferred under subsection (4)(b)(i) for more than 2 hours to allow a consular official that the person has communicated with to arrive at the place where the person is being detained.
(7) An investigative procedure is not required to be deferred to allow the person to consult with a consular official who does not arrive at the place where the person is being detained within 2 hours after the person communicated with the consular official.
(8) After being informed orally and in writing of his or her rights under this section, the person is to be requested to sign an acknowledgment that he or she has been so informed.
(9) This section does not apply if the custody manager did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known, that the person is not an Australian citizen or a permanent Australian resident.



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