17ESecrecy

##### 17E Secrecy (1) Subsection (2) applies to every person who is or has been the Director or a member of the staff assisting the Director. (2) Subject to subsection (3), a person to whom this subsection applies shall not, either directly or indirectly, except in the performance of a duty under or in connexion with this Act, make a record of, or divulge or communicate to any person, any information relating to uranium mining operations in the Region, being information concerning the affairs of any other person acquired by him or her by reason of his or her office or employment under or for the purposes of this Act or otherwise in the performance of functions or the exercise of powers under this Act. Penalty: $1,000 or imprisonment for 6 months, or both. (3) Subsection (2) does not prevent the communication of information or the production of a document by the Director or a member of the staff assisting the Director authorized by him or her for that purpose: (a) to the Minister, to the Secretary of a Department that deals with matters arising under this Act or to an officer of, or employee in, such a Department approved by the Secretary of that Department; or (b) to a person to whom, in the opinion of the Minister, it is in the public interest that the information be communicated or the document be produced. (4) Neither the Secretary of a Department that deals with matters arising under this Act nor an officer of, or employee in, that Department approved by him or her for the purposes of subsection (3) shall, either directly or indirectly, except for the purpose of advising the Minister in connexion with this Act, make a record of, or divulge or communicate to any person, any information relating to uranium mining operations in the Region communicated to him or her by the Director or by a member of the staff assisting the Director, being information concerning the affairs of another person acquired by the Director or by a member of that staff by reason of his or her office or employment under or for the purposes of this Act or otherwise in the performance of functions or the exercise of powers under this Act. Penalty: $1,000 or imprisonment for 6 months, or both. (5) Nothing in this section shall be taken to affect the operation of section 9 of the Ombudsman Act 1976 or the operation of any similar provision in a law of the Northern Territory that confers functions on a person similar to functions conferred on the Ombudsman by that Act. (6) A reference in this section to a member of the staff assisting the Director is a reference to a member of the Service or a person engaged under section 35 or performing functions and exercising powers by virtue of section 36 or a person to whom a delegation has been made under section 20.