Criminal Code Act 1995

Schedule - The Criminal Code  

Section 3

CHAPTER 7 - THE PROPER ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT  

Part 7.7 - Forgery and related offences  

Division 143 - Preliminary  

SECTION 143.3   False Commonwealth documents  

(1)    
For the purposes of this Part, a document is a false Commonwealth document if, and only if:

(a) the document, or any part of the document:

(i) purports to have been made in the form in which it is made by a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not make it in that form; or

(ii) purports to have been made in the form in which it is made on the authority of a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not authorise its making in that form; or

(b) the document, or any part of the document:

(i) purports to have been made in the terms in which it is made by a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not make it in those terms; or

(ii) purports to have been made in the terms in which it is made on the authority of a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not authorise its making in those terms; or

(c) the document, or any part of the document:

(i) purports to have been altered in any respect by a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not alter it in that respect; or

(ii) purports to have been altered in any respect on the authority of a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not authorise its alteration in that respect; or

(d) the document, or any part of the document:

(i) purports to have been made or altered by a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not exist; or

(ii) purports to have been made or altered on the authority of a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, who did not exist; or

(e) the document, or any part of the document, purports to have been made or altered by a Commonwealth entity, or a Commonwealth public official, on a date on which, at a time at which, at a place at which, or otherwise in circumstances in which, it was not made or altered.

(2)    
For the purposes of this Part, a person is taken to make a false Commonwealth document if the person alters a document so as to make it a false Commonwealth document (whether or not it was already a false Commonwealth document before the alteration).

(3)    
This section has effect as if a document that purports to be a true copy of another document were the original document.

(4)    
A reference in this section to a Commonwealth public official is a reference to a person in the person ' s capacity as a Commonwealth public official.