183Proceedings under this Part

183 Proceedings under this Part

[Section 183 Inserted by No. 60 of 2013, s. 12, Applied:01 Mar 2014]

(1)  Proceedings on an application under this Part are taken to be civil proceedings for all purposes.

(2)  A court dealing with proceedings under this Part may do one or more of the following:

(a) order that the whole or any part of the proceedings is to be heard in closed court;

(b) order that only persons, or classes of persons, specified by the court may be present during the whole or any part of the proceedings;

(c) order that the publication of a report of the whole or any part of the proceedings, or of any information derived from the proceedings, is prohibited.

(3)  Except in relation to an offence under this Part –

(a) a rule of construction that is applicable only in relation to the criminal law does not apply in the interpretation of this Part; and

(b) the rules of evidence applicable in civil proceedings apply in proceedings under this Part; and

(c) the rules of evidence applicable only in criminal proceedings do not apply in proceedings under this Part; and

(d) a question of fact to be decided by a court in proceedings on an application under this Part is to be decided on the balance of probabilities.

(4)  A decision under this Part, except under Division 4 , about the existence of grounds for doing or suspecting anything may be based on hearsay evidence or hearsay information.