RADIO SCANNER LAWS IN NSW

Hello and welcome back.... I was asked, today by a neighbour "Is Scanning Legal?", and was surprised when I said 'YES', It is perfectly legal pastime as long as you follow a few guidelines.

The information below was advised by the NSW Regional Office of the ACMA in January 2007.

Receive Only & Scanners
A transceiver that would normally require a licence to possess and operate may be used for receiving only (without a licence) IF, and only if, it has been modified in a way that makes it impossible to transmit by simply plugging in a microphone or making some simple adjustment.

In other words, if you have a technician disable the transmitter internally so it can not be easily enabled then you may use it as a receiver to listen to any service.

Scanners and scanning receivers are perfectly legal to own and use.

There are NO laws that prohibit listening to any service or authority, except for: telephones; you can not monitor any telephone service (including mobile phone, Radphone, Seaphone, etc) or Encrypted transmissions (including Police)

SO, what does this mean.... Basically scanning is a hobby or pastime and it stays like that, USE COMMON SENSE.... I can't stress that enough.

DON'T rock up to an accident with a radio scanner in your hand, most emergency services especially Police frown upon their conversations being "Spied upon" or listened to.

DON'T use your scanner for Illegal activity, you want to be stupid enough to break the law then leave your scanner at home for when you get out of jail.
It pisses me that idiots get caught, and it gets splattered across the news that the person was caught with "A Police Radio Scanner".

All this does is ruin it for people like myself and other like mined people that enjoy this hobby

DON'T record private phone conversations... This is illegal.
This includes Mobile phones, Cordless-phones and Ship to shore radio telephone.

DON'T re-transmit conversations that you hear on your scanner. 
Keep conversations that you hear to yourself. I do believe you can reword a conversation, say if you were writing a story, post or website (can anybody verify?)
Try to limit what you say on Socal Media..eg, Facebook.
Most members of the public are not aware of what a radio scanner is and usually the ones that do, think that your some type of weird pervert listening in to people's conversations (you can thank the media for that one) 
Also be careful if you do give out information, the person reading the detailed post of a bloke who committed suicide by setting himself of fire may be a someones loved one and wouldn't appreciate everyone knowing how it all went down. 
Think before you Post.

In regards to Android and Apple Apps that have police scanners on them I think its only a matter of time that they are banned. 
I was reading about a police officer in America chasing a suspect down a street, as the officer spoke he could hear his voice being echoed from the persons iPhone.... This outraged police officers and their unions, making a request to parliament to ban these apps.

Hope this helps, basically it comes down to common sense, because it may be a matter of time that certain people could ruin it for others with their stupid behavior... Time will tell.

Disclaimer = I am not a Lawyer or solicitor, I have compiled this information after years of knowledge, research and common sense.