36BDisclosure not required: State Attorney‑General’s public interest certificate

#### 36B Disclosure not required: State Attorney‑General’s public interest certificate Scope (1AA) This section does not apply to a proceeding in the Security Division to which section 39A or 39BA applies. State Attorney‑General may issue public interest certificate (1) If the Attorney‑General of a State certifies, by writing signed by him or her, that the disclosure of information concerning a specified matter, or the disclosure of any matter contained in a document, would be contrary to the public interest: (a) by reason that it would involve the disclosure of deliberations or decisions of the Cabinet, or of a Committee of the Cabinet, of the State; or (b) for any other specified reason that could form the basis for a claim by the Crown in right of the State in a judicial proceeding that the information or the matter contained in the document should not be disclosed; the following provisions of this section have effect. Protection of information etc. (2) A person who is required by or under this Act to disclose the information, or to produce to, or lodge with, the Tribunal the document in which the matter is contained, for the purposes of a proceeding is not excused from the requirement, but the Tribunal shall, subject to subsection (3) and to section 46, do all things necessary to ensure that the information, or the matter contained in the document, is not disclosed to any person other than a member of the Tribunal as constituted for the purposes of the proceeding, and, in the case of a document produced to or lodged with the Tribunal, to ensure the return of the document to the person by whom it was produced or lodged. Disclosure of information etc. (3) Where the Attorney‑General of a State has certified in accordance with subsection (1) that the disclosure of information, or of matter contained in a document, would be contrary to the public interest but the certificate does not specify a reason referred to in paragraph (1)(a), the Tribunal shall consider whether the information or the matter should be disclosed to all or any of the parties to the proceeding and, if it decides that the information or the matter should be so disclosed, the Tribunal shall make the information available or permit the part of the document containing the matter to be inspected accordingly. State Attorney‑General taken to be a party (4) Where, in relation to a proceeding to which the Attorney‑General of a State would not, but for this subsection, be a party, that Attorney‑General certifies in accordance with subsection (1) that the disclosure of information, or of matter contained in a document, would be contrary to the public interest but the certificate does not specify a reason referred to in paragraph (1)(a), that Attorney‑General shall, for the purposes of this Act, be taken to be a party to the proceeding. What Tribunal must consider in deciding whether to disclose information etc. (5) In considering whether information, or matter contained in a document, should be disclosed as mentioned in subsection (3), the Tribunal shall take as the basis of its consideration the principle that it is desirable in the interest of securing the effective performance of the Tribunal’s functions that the parties to a proceeding should be made aware of all relevant matters, but shall pay due regard to any reason that the Attorney‑General of the State has specified in the certificate as a reason why the disclosure of the information, or of the matter contained in the document, as the case may be, would be contrary to the public interest.