Service and Execution of Process Act 1992

This section applies to:

a magistrate conducting a proceeding under section 83; or

the Supreme Court of a State conducting a review under section 86.

The magistrate or Court may, on application, order that a report of:

a part of the proceeding or review held in public; or

a finding publicly made by the magistrate or Court;

The order is not to be made unless the magistrate or Court is satisfied that the publication of the report would give rise to a substantial risk that:

the fair trial of a person charged with an offence against a law of the Commonwealth or of a State triable by a jury might be prejudiced because of the influence that the publication might exert on the members of the jury; or

either:

a witness in a proceeding (including a pending or contemplated proceeding) before a court, authority or tribunal, or before a person who is authorised to take evidence; or

a member of the witness’s family;

property of such a witness, or property of a member of the witness’s family, would be damaged; or

the prosecution of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth or a State, or a proceeding under a law of the Commonwealth or a State for the recovery of a pecuniary penalty, would be prejudiced; or

an investigation preparatory to such a prosecution or proceeding would be prejudiced; or

national security would be prejudiced; or

if the proceeding concerns an offence of a sexual nature—a victim of the alleged offence would be identified; or

if the proceeding concerns:

the welfare of a child; or

an offence of which a child is a victim; or

an offence alleged to have been committed by a child;

The magistrate or Court must not, by exercising any other power that the magistrate or Court might have, make an order in the nature of a suppression order for the purpose of preventing or lessening a risk mentioned in subsection (3).

For the purposes of this section, the members of a person’s family are taken to include the following (without limitation):

a de facto partner of the person (within the meaning of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901);

someone who is the child of the person, or of whom the person is the child, because of the definition of child in section 3;

anyone else who would be a member of the person’s family if someone mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) is taken to be a member of the person’s family.