Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016

An authorised officer may issue a penalty notice to a person if it appears to the officer that the person has committed a penalty notice offence.

A penalty notice offence is an offence against this Act or the regulations, or a native vegetation offence, that is prescribed by the regulations as a penalty notice offence.

The Fines Act 1996 applies to a penalty notice issued under this section.

Note.

The Fines Act 1996 provides that, if a person issued with a penalty notice does not wish to have the matter determined by a court, the person may pay the amount specified in the notice and is not liable to any further proceedings for the alleged offence.

The amount payable under a penalty notice issued under this section is the amount prescribed for the alleged offence by the regulations (not exceeding the maximum amount of penalty that could be imposed for the offence by a court).

A penalty notice issued under this section may be withdrawn by any authorised officer within 28 days after the penalty notice was issued. If the penalty notice is withdrawn—

any amount that has been paid under the penalty notice is to be repaid to the person who paid it, and

proceedings may be taken in respect of the alleged offence as if the penalty notice had not been issued.

This section does not limit the operation of any other provision of, or made under, this or any other Act relating to proceedings that may be taken in respect of offences.

In this section, authorised officer means a person who is declared by the regulations to be an authorised officer for the purposes of this section or who belongs to a class of persons so declared.