Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006
A person (the defendant ) contravenes this subsection if: (a) one of the following imposes a requirement in relation to the audit of a financial report of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation:
(i) an applied provision of the Corporations Act ;
(ii) regulations made for the purposes of section 333-15 ;
(b) the requirement is that, if the auditor is an audit firm, the audit firm must have a member or members who have particular qualifications or experience; and (c) at a particular time, a firm acts as auditor in relation to the financial report or a part of it; and (d) at that time, the firm does not have a member or members who satisfy the requirement referred to in paragraph (b) ; and (e) the defendant is a member of the firm at that time; and (f) the defendant is aware of the circumstances referred to in paragraphs (c) and (d) at that time.
(iii) a determination by the Registrar under section 336-1 or 336-5 ; and
Penalty: 25 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.
339-65(2)
A person (the defendant ) contravenes this subsection if: (a) one of the following imposes a requirement in relation to the audit of a financial report of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation:
(i) an applied provision of the Corporations Act ;
(ii) regulations made for the purposes of section 333-15 ;
(b) the requirement is that, if the auditor is an audit firm, the audit firm must have a member or members who have particular qualifications or experience; and (c) at a particular time, a firm acts as auditor in relation to the financial report or a part of it; and (d) at that time, the firm does not satisfy the requirement referred to in paragraph (b) ; and (e) the defendant is a member of the firm at that time.
(iii) a determination by the Registrar under section 336-1 or 336-5 ; and
Penalty: 10 penalty units.
339-65(3)
For the purposes of an offence based on subsection (2) , strict liability applies to the physical elements of the offence specified in paragraphs (2)(a) and (b) .
Note 1:
For strict liability , see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .
Note 2:
Subsection (4) provides a defence.
339-65(4)
A member of an audit firm does not commit an offence at a particular time because of a contravention of subsection (2) if the member either: (a) does not know at that time of the circumstances that constitute the contravention of subsection (2) ; or (b) does know of those circumstances at that time but takes all reasonable steps to correct the contravention as soon as possible after the member becomes aware of those circumstances.
Note:
A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in subsection (4) (see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code ).
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