Monitoring contact with family members, lawyers etc under sections 26ZE, 26ZG, 26ZGA and 26ZH
26ZI Monitoring contact with family members, lawyers etc under sections 26ZE, 26ZG, 26ZGA and 26ZH
The contact the person being detained has with another person under section 26ZE, 26ZG, 26ZGA or 26ZH may take place only if it is conducted in such a way that the contact, and the content and meaning of the communication that takes place during the contact, can be effectively monitored by a police officer exercising authority under the preventative detention order.
The contact may take place in a language other than English only if the content and meaning of the communication that takes place during the contact can be effectively monitored with the assistance of an interpreter.
Without limiting subsection (2), the interpreter referred to in that subsection may be a police officer.
If the person being detained indicates that he or she wishes the contact to take place in a language other than English, the police officer who is detaining the person must—
arrange for the services of an appropriate interpreter to be provided if it is reasonably practicable to do so during the period during which the person is being detained, and
if it is reasonably practicable to do so—arrange for those services to be provided as soon as practicable.
The police officer who is detaining the person must, before the contact takes place, inform the person being detained, and any person with whom the person being detained has contact, that the contact (whether it takes place by telephone, by audiovisual link or in person) will be monitored.
Any communication between—
a person who is being detained under a preventative detention order, and
a lawyer,
for a purpose referred to in section 26ZG is not admissible in evidence against the person in any proceedings in a court.
A person (the monitor) commits an offence if—
the monitor is—
a police officer who monitors, or
an interpreter who assists in monitoring,
contact that a person being detained under a preventative detention order has with a lawyer under section 26ZG while the detainee is being detained under the order, and
information is communicated in the course of that contact, and
the information is protected information, and
the monitor discloses that information to another person.
Maximum penalty—Imprisonment for 5 years.
However, a monitor does not commit an offence under subsection (6) in relation to the disclosure of information to a lawyer for the purpose of obtaining advice as to—
whether the information is protected information, and
the monitor’s obligations under this Act in relation to that information.
A person commits an offence if—
the person is a lawyer whose advice has been sought under subsection (7) by a monitor, and
protected information is disclosed to the lawyer by the monitor, and
the lawyer discloses that protected information to another person.
Maximum penalty—Imprisonment for 5 years.
In this section—
protected information means information communicated between a detainee and the detainee’s lawyer for a purpose referred to in section 26ZG.
This Act’s bill:Explanatory memorandumSecond reading speech
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