Environment Protection Act 1993

Where, on the application of an authorised officer, a magistrate is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe—

that a contravention of this Act has been, is being, or is about to be, committed in or on a place or vehicle; or

that something may be found in or on a place or vehicle that has been used in, or constitutes evidence of, a contravention of this Act;

that site contamination may exist in a place or something may be found in a place that constitutes evidence of a cause of site contamination, the magistrate may issue a warrant in respect of the place or vehicle authorising an authorised officer, with such assistants as he or she consider necessary, to use reasonable force to break into or open any part of, or anything in or on, the place or vehicle as specified in the warrant.

An application for the issue of a warrant may be made either personally or by telephone.

The grounds of an application for a warrant must be verified by affidavit.

An application for the issue of a warrant may not be made by telephone unless in the opinion of the applicant a warrant is urgently required and there is insufficient time to make the application personally.

Where an application for the issue of a warrant is made by telephone, the following provisions apply:

the applicant must inform the magistrate of his or her name and identify himself or herself as an authorised officer, and the magistrate, on receiving that information, is entitled to assume, without further inquiry, that the applicant is an authorised officer;

the applicant must inform the magistrate of the grounds on which he or she seeks the issue of the warrant;

if it appears to the magistrate from the information furnished by the applicant that there are proper grounds for the issue of a warrant, the magistrate must inform the applicant of the facts on which he or she relies as grounds for the issue of the warrant, and must not proceed to issue the warrant unless the applicant undertakes to make an affidavit verifying those facts;

if the applicant gives such an undertaking, the magistrate may then make out and sign a warrant, noting on the warrant the facts on which he or she relies as grounds for the issue of the warrant;

the warrant will be taken to have been issued, and will come into force, when signed by the magistrate;

the magistrate must inform the applicant of the terms of the warrant;

the applicant must, as soon as practicable after the issue of the warrant, forward to the magistrate an affidavit verifying the facts referred to in paragraph (c).

A magistrate by whom a warrant is issued must file the warrant, or a copy of the warrant, and the affidavit verifying the grounds on which the application for the warrant was made, in the Environment, Resources and

An authorised officer who executes a warrant must, as soon as practicable after execution of the warrant—

prepare a notice in the prescribed form containing—

his or her own name and a statement that he or she is an authorised officer under this Act; and

the name of the magistrate who issued the warrant and the date and time of its issue; and

a description of the place or vehicle to which the warrant relates and of the authority conferred by the warrant; and

give the notice to the occupier or person apparently in charge of the place or vehicle in respect of which the warrant was issued or leave it for him or her in a prominent position on the place or vehicle.

A warrant, if not executed at the expiration of one month from the date of its issue, then expires.

This section does not apply in relation to a special powers warrant issued under section 88A.