EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Attorney-General
Telecommunications (Interception) Act 1979
Telecommunications (Interception) (Emergency Service Facility – Australian Capital Territory) Instrument 2005
The Telecommunications (Interception) Act 1979 (the Act) establishes a general prohibition against the interception of communications passing over a telecommunications system. The purpose of this Notice is to ensure listening to or recording calls to and from a declared emergency service facility in the Australian Capital Territory 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.
This instrument is made under subsection 6(2D) of the Act. The related declaration under subsection 6(2B) is the Telecommunications (Interception) (Emergency Service Facility) Declaration 2005.