Disconnection of dangerous customer equipment or customer cabling
446 Disconnection of dangerous customer equipment or customer cabling
If:
a person (the first person):
connects customer equipment, or customer cabling, to a telecommunications network or to a facility; or
has under his or her control customer equipment, or customer cabling, connected to a telecommunications network or to a facility; and
the manager of the network or facility has an honest belief that the equipment or cabling is, or is likely to be, a threat to the health or safety of persons who:
operate; or
work on; or
use services supplied by means of; or
are otherwise reasonably likely to be affected by the operation of;
a telecommunications network or a facility;
the manager of the network or facility may:
disconnect the equipment or cabling; and
if it is necessary to disconnect other customer equipment or other customer cabling for the purposes of achieving the disconnection referred to in paragraph (c)—disconnect that other equipment or cabling.
If:
equipment or cabling is disconnected, or purportedly disconnected, under subsection (1); and
the ACMA is satisfied that there were no reasonable grounds for the belief mentioned in paragraph (1)(b);
the ACMA may, by written notice given to the manager of the network or facility, direct the manager to reconnect the equipment or cabling.
A person must comply with a direction under subsection (2).
If:
equipment or cabling is disconnected, or purportedly disconnected, under subsection (1); and
the manager of the network or facility had no reasonable grounds for the belief mentioned in paragraph (1)(b); and
as a result of the disconnection, the first person suffers loss or damage;
the first person may apply to the Federal Court for the recovery from the manager of the amount of the loss or damage.
An application under subsection (4) must be made within 3 years after the damage was caused or the loss was suffered, as the case requires.
The statute text is free to read above. View subscription options to unlock the case-law research tools for each provision.