Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988

This section applies if an authorised officer believes on reasonable grounds that:

a person is about to depart from Australia for a foreign country; and

a departure prohibition order in respect of the person is in force; and

the person’s departure is not authorised by a departure authorisation certificate.

The authorised officer may:

take such steps as are reasonably necessary to prevent the person’s departure, including, but not limited to, steps to prevent the person going on board, or to remove the person from, a vessel or aircraft in which the authorised officer believes on reasonable grounds the departure will take place; and

require the person to answer questions or produce documents to the authorised officer for the purposes of ascertaining whether:

a departure prohibition order in respect of the person is in force; and

if such an order in respect of the person is in force—whether the person’s departure is authorised by a departure authorisation certificate.

A person commits an offence if the person refuses or fails to answer a question or produce a document.

However, a person does not commit an offence under subsection (3) if the person answers the question or produces the document to the extent that the person is capable of answering the question or producing the document.

A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters mentioned in subsection (4).

A person must not, in answer to a question under subsection (2), make a statement that the person knows to be false or misleading in a material particular.