Explanatory Statement
Issued by the Authority of the Attorney-General
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) (Emergency Service Facilities –Queensland) Instrument 2007 (No.2)
The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (the Act) establishes a general prohibition against the interception of communications passing over a telecommunications system. The purpose of the Instrument is to ensure that listening to or recording calls to and from a declared emergency service facility is not an interception for the purposes of the Act.
Subsection 6(2F) of the Act provides that a person who is lawfully engaged in duties relating to the receiving and handling of communications to or from an ‘emergency service facility’ may listen to or record a communication to or from the emergency service facility without contravening the general prohibition against interception.
The exception provided by subsection 6(2F) of the Act only applies to emergency services facilities that are declared by the Minister pursuant to subsection 6(2B) of the
Act. To protect against the publication of the location of the facilities, which are critical infrastructure, a declaration under subsection 6(2B) of the Act is not a legislative instrument.
To maintain Parliamentary scrutiny of the declarations, subsection 6(2D) of the Act provides that the Minister must, by legislative instrument, specify the name of the force or service operating the premises to which the declaration relates, and the geographical region in which those premises are located.
On 27 April 2007, the Attorney-General, as Minister administering the Act, made the Telecommunications (Interception) (Emergency Service Facility – Queensland) Declaration 2007 and the corresponding legislative instrument.
The emergency service facilities at Roma and Toowoomba are now operating at new addresses. The current declaration refers to premises occupied by the Beenleigh Police Communications Centre which should properly be called the Logan Police Communications Centre. Other minor amendments are necessary to correct numbers and the spelling of street names.
The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) (Emergency Service Facilities – Queensland) Instrument 2007 (No. 2) is made under subsection 6(2D) of the Act and revokes and replaces the current instrument. The related declaration, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) (Emergency Service Facilities ‑ Queensland) Declaration 2007 (No.2), is made under subsection 6(2B) of the Act and revokes and replaces the current declaration.
This instrument commences on the day after it is registered.