Failure to comply with biosecurity duty
50 Failure to comply with biosecurity duty
A person must not fail to discharge the person's biosecurity duty under this Division.
Maximum penalty:
for a body corporate—$250 000;
for a natural person—$50 000.
A person who commits an offence under this section because of failing to comply with the person's biosecurity duty under this Division—
continues, until the duty is discharged, to be required to discharge the duty;
and
is guilty of a continuing offence for each day that the failure continues.
In any proceedings for an offence under this section in respect of a biosecurity event, evidence that a reasonable person with the capacity, and in the circumstances, of the defendant ought to have known, or suspected, the occurrence or likely occurrence of the biosecurity event is evidence, unless the contrary is proven, that the defendant held such knowledge or suspicion.
It is a defence to proceedings for an offence under this section in respect of a biosecurity event if the defendant establishes that the defendant did not notify the biosecurity event as required under this Division, because the defendant has reasonable grounds to believe that the biosecurity event was widely and publicly known at the time the defendant allegedly committed the offence.
This Act’s bill:Second reading speech
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