Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) Subject to
subsection (1A), (3) or (3A), any information in the custody of a court that
would, or would be likely to, reveal or lead to the revelation of the
whereabouts of —
(a) a
party to proceedings under this Act; or
(b) any
person who gives evidence in proceedings under this Act,
is not to be disclosed
by the court or a registrar of the court —
(c) to a
party to the proceedings; or
(d) in
such a manner that the information will, or may, be revealed to a party to the
proceedings.
(1A) Subsection (1)
does not apply to a disclosure of information to a person who is, or who is in
a class of persons that is, prescribed in the regulations for the purposes of
this subsection.
(1B) If the
information is disclosed to a person referred to in subsection (1A) —
(a) no
civil or criminal liability is incurred in respect of the disclosure of the
information; and
(b) the
disclosure of the information is not to be regarded as a breach of any duty of
confidentiality or secrecy imposed by any written or other law; and
(c) the
disclosure of the information is not to be regarded as a breach of
professional ethics or standards or as unprofessional conduct.
(2) Subject to
subsection (3), a person must not publish in a newspaper or periodical
publication or by radio broadcast, television or other electronic means, or
otherwise disseminate to the public or to a section of the public by any means
any information that would, or would be likely to, reveal or lead to the
revelation of the whereabouts of —
(a) a
party to proceedings under this Act; or
(b) any
person who gives evidence in proceedings under this Act.
Penalty for this subsection: a fine of $6 000 or
imprisonment for 18 months.
(3) This section does
not apply if the court is satisfied —
(a) that
the person to whom the information is to be, or may be, disclosed is already
aware of the whereabouts of the person to whom the information applies; or
(b) that
the person who would otherwise be protected by this section —
(i)
understands the effect of this section; and
(ii)
has agreed that this section is not to apply,
and specifies in the
restraining order that this section does not apply.
(3A) This section does
not prevent —
(a) the
matter number of any proceedings (whether under this Act or otherwise) being
displayed by a court in the precincts of the court; or
(b) the
name of a party to any proceedings (whether under this Act or otherwise), or
the name of any other person who is to give evidence in any such proceedings,
being revealed by or on behalf of a court in the precincts of the court.
(4) In this section
—
under this Act includes proceedings in which the
existence of a restraining order is a material fact in the proceedings.
[Section 70 inserted: No. 38 of 2004 s. 48;
amended: No. 5 of 2008 s. 105; No. 49 of 2016 s. 76; No. 30 of 2020 s. 81.]