Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

IDENTITY VERIFICATION SERVICES ACT 2023 - SECT 17

Requesting authorities

  (1)   A request for an FIS must be made only:

  (a)   by any of the following officers of a Commonwealth, State or Territory government authority that is a party to a participation agreement:

  (i)   a law enforcement officer or intelligence officer (within the meaning of section   15K of the Crimes Act 1914 );

  (ii)   an officer (however described) of an agency authorised under a corresponding assumed identity law (within the meaning of section   15K of the Crimes Act 1914 );

  (iii)   an officer (however described) of an approved authority (within the meaning of the Witness Protection Act 1994 ) that is permitted to participate in the National Witness Protection Program under that Act, or a complementary witness protection law declared under section   3AA of that Act; and

  (b)   if the officer is required to make the request for the purpose of protecting the identity of a shielded person or someone else associated with a shielded person.

Person making request

  (2)   The person making the request on behalf of the authority must be an officer who is approved as a suitable person to make the request (or requests of that kind) by:

  (a)   the head (however described) of the authority; or

  (b)   a person who:

  (i)   is the holder of a management office or position in the authority; and

  (ii)   is authorised, by notice in writing given to the Department, by that head to approve persons to make requests for FISs on behalf of the authority; and

  (iii)   is senior to the person making the request.

Note:   To comply with the participation agreement to which the authority is party, an officer approved to make the request must have been trained in facial recognition and image comparison: see paragraph 10(2)(b).

Request stating relevant activity

  (3)   The request must:

  (a)   include a single facial image of an individual (whether or not other face - matching service information that relates to the individual is included); and

  (b)   specify the kinds of government identification documents against which the face - matching service information in the request is to be compared, partly by reference to whether the authority by or on behalf of which the documents are issued is:

  (i)   an authority of the Commonwealth; or

  (ii)   an authority of a specified State; or

  (iii)   an authority of a specified Territory.

Note:   Making a false or misleading statement in the request may be an offence against section   136.1 of the Criminal Code .

Endorsement of request

  (4)   The request must be:

  (a)   endorsed by the head (however described) of the authority, or a person who:

  (i)   is the holder of a management office or position in the authority; and

  (ii)   is authorised, by notice in writing given to the Department, by that head to endorse requests for FISs made on behalf of the authority; and

  (iii)   is senior to the person making the request; and

  (b)   made by electronic communication to the Face Matching Service Hub.

Note:   The endorsement may be given at the same time as, or after, the request is made by electronic communication to the Face Matching Service Hub.

  (5)   A person must not endorse a request made on behalf of an authority unless the person is satisfied that the request is made for the purposes of:

  (a)   protecting the shielded person, or associate, stated in the request; and

  (b)   the performance of the authority's functions.