National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 No 80
156B Powers of authorised officers
(1) The Director-General may appoint any person (including a class of persons) to be an authorised officer for the purposes of national parks legislation. Such an appointment is to be made under Chapter 7 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (the POEO Act) as applied under this section.
(2) An authorised officer has and may exercise the functions of an authorised officer under Chapter 7 (except Part 7.6) of the POEO Act for the following purposes:
(a) for determining whether there has been compliance with or a contravention of national parks legislation,
(b) for obtaining information or records for purposes connected with the administration of national parks legislation,
(c) generally for administering national parks legislation.
(3) The provisions of Chapter 7 of the POEO Act apply to and in respect of national parks legislation as if those provisions were part of this Act, but modified so that:
(a) references in those provisions to an authorised officer were references to authorised officers appointed as referred to in this section, and
(b) references in those provisions to “this Act” were references to an Act or regulation forming part of the national parks legislation, and
(c) references in those provisions to the EPA were references to the Director-General, and
(d) the Director-General were the appropriate regulatory authority for matters concerning national parks legislation.
(3A) Section 319A of the POEO Act applies in respect of notices given by an authorised officer pursuant to subsection (2) in the same way as it applies to notices given under that Act or the regulations under that Act, except that in so applying that section a reference to a regulatory authority is to be read as a reference to the Director-General.
(3B) For the avoidance of doubt, a prosecution of a person for an offence against a provision of Chapter 7 of the POEO Act (as applying under this section) is to be taken as if the offence were an offence under this Act.
(4) The functions that an authorised officer has under Chapter 7 of the POEO Act are, for the purposes of any provision of national parks legislation, taken to be functions under national parks legislation.
(5) If an authorised officer has functions in respect of a matter under both Chapter 7 of the POEO Act (as applying under this section) and under any other provision of national parks legislation, the fact that there is a restriction on the exercise of a function under national parks legislation does not of itself operate to restrict the exercise by an authorised officer of any similar or the same function under Chapter 7 of the POEO Act.
