Thread: Useing the firearms register

Originally Posted by No.3

I think in custody dispute situations in court at least, it was made clear that ALL parties need to be aware that the call is being recorded. Otherwise, quite possibly an offence has been committed and the call recordings can't be used in court?

Nope, it's in the law, Crimes Act 216B Prohibition on use of interception devices: Subsection 1 does not apply where the person intercepting the private communication—
a is a party to that private communication;

However you do have to be careful how you use it. Where it gets interesting in court is if someone claims they didn't mean what they said, by telling them you are recording the conversation you are setting an expectation that everything they say will be truthful. However in calling a government agency (or company) the expectation would be everything they say is truthful as representatives of that agency - with or without telling them you are recording this conversation.

Years ago I used to cover a sales territory from Wgtn to Tarakani and across to Hawkes Bay. I used to get customers ringing me all the the time on the road with complex questions, at the time (early 2000s) I had an early smartphone which could auto record all calls. So I could talk them while driving (hands free of course!) and get back to the office and review the call. So I was obviously quite interested in the legality of what I was doing.