Domestic Violence Agencies (Information Sharing) Amendment Act 2024

An information holder commits an offence if—

the information holder does something that discloses information; and

the information is shared information about someone else (the protected person); and

the information holder is reckless about whether—

the information is shared information about the protected person; and

doing the thing would result in the information being disclosed to someone else.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units, imprisonment for 6 months or both.

An information holder commits an offence if—

the information holder uses information; and

the information is shared information about a protected person; and

the entity is reckless about whether the information is shared information about the protected person.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units, imprisonment for 6 months or both

Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply if the information holder—

discloses or uses the shared information—

in relation to the exercise of a function, as an information holder, under this part; or

as required in relation to a court proceeding; or

with the protected person’s consent; or

discloses the shared information to the chief police officer in connection with a possible domestic and family violence offence.

Note The defendant has an evidential burden in relation to the matters mentioned in s (3) (see Criminal Code, s 58).

An information holder need not disclose shared information to a court, or produce a document containing shared information to a court, unless it is necessary to do so for this Act or another law applying in the ACT.

In this section:

court includes a tribunal, authority or person having power to require the production of documents or the answering of questions.

information holder means anyone who exercises, or has exercised, a function under this part.

produce includes allow access to.

shared information means information about a person that is disclosed to, or obtained by, an information holder because of the exercise of a function under this part by the information holder or someone else.