23Application by telephone for search warrants

#### 23 Application by telephone for search warrants (1) Where, by reason of circumstances of urgency, an eligible person considers it necessary to do so, the eligible person may make application by telephone for a warrant under section 22. (2) Before so making application, the eligible person shall prepare an affidavit that sets out the grounds on which the issue of the warrant is being sought, but may, if it is necessary to do so, make the application before the affidavit has been sworn. (3) Where an issuing officer issues a warrant under section 22 upon an application made by telephone, he or she shall: (a) complete and sign the warrant; (b) inform the eligible person who made the application of the terms of the warrant and the date on which and the time at which it was signed; (c) record on the warrant his or her reasons for issuing the warrant; and (d) send a copy of the warrant to the CEO. (4) Where a warrant is issued under section 22 upon an application made by telephone, a member of the staff of the ACC or a member of the Australian Federal Police or of the Police Force of a State may complete a form of warrant in the terms indicated by the issuing officer under subsection (3) and, where a form of warrant is so completed, he or she shall write on it the name of the issuing officer who issued the warrant and the date on which and the time at which it was signed. (5) Where a person completes a form of warrant in accordance with subsection (4), the person shall, not later than the day next following the date of expiry of the warrant, send to the issuing officer who signed the warrant the form of warrant completed by him or her and the affidavit duly sworn in connection with the warrant. (6) Upon receipt of the documents referred to in subsection (5), the issuing officer shall attach them to the warrant signed by him or her and deal with the documents in the manner in which he or she would have dealt with the affidavit if the application for the warrant had been made to him or her in accordance with section 22. (7) A form of warrant duly completed in accordance with subsection (4) shall be deemed to be a warrant issued under section 22. (8) A function of issuing a warrant conferred on an issuing officer by this section is conferred on the issuing officer in a personal capacity and not as a court or a member of a court. (9) Without limiting the generality of subsection (8), the issue of a warrant has effect only by virtue of this Act and is not to be taken by implication to be made by a court. (10) An issuing officer performing a function of, or connected with, issuing a warrant under this section has the same protection and immunity as if he or she were performing that function as, or as a member of, a court (being the court of which the issuing officer is a member).