Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 section 136

Admissibility of certain documents in proceedings for offence

Section 136 sets out the rules on what documents can be admitted as evidence in court proceedings for offences under the Act.

• Payroll documents (payslips, payroll ledgers, books of account) are automatically admissible as evidence of the matters they record, as are copies reproduced from electronic or other non-legible storage in the normal course of business.
• Other business documents are also admissible, provided they were prepared or kept in the ordinary course of business by someone with personal knowledge of the matters recorded — but this is subject to important exceptions.
• Business documents (other than payroll documents) are not admissible under this section if they are legally privileged, were prepared for the purposes of an investigation, inquiry or legal or disciplinary proceedings, or were prepared after the alleged offence was committed.
• Nothing in this section prevents a document from being admissible under any other rule of law or enactment — the section adds to, rather than restricts, the existing rules of evidence.