4A   Public officials

(1)  In this Act, public official means:

(a)  an individual who is an employee of or otherwise in the service of a public authority, and includes (without limitation) each of the following:

(i)  a person employed under the Public Sector Employment and Management Act 2002,

(ii)  a member of Parliament, but not for the purposes of a disclosure made by the member,

(iii)  a person employed by either or both of the President of the Legislative Council or the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly,

(iv)  any other individual having public official functions or acting in a public official capacity whose conduct and activities may be investigated by an investigating authority,

(v)  an individual in the service of the Crown, or

(b)  an individual who is engaged by a public authority under a contract to provide services to or on behalf of the public authority, or

(c)  if a corporation is engaged by a public authority under a contract to provide services to or on behalf of the public authority, an employee or officer of the corporation who provides or is to provide the contracted services or any part of those services.

(2)  Without limiting subsection (1) and to avoid doubt, particular examples of public officials are as follows:

(a)  a volunteer rural fire fighter who is an officer or other member of a rural fire brigade under the Rural Fires Act 1997,

(b)  a volunteer officer or volunteer member of an SES unit (within the meaning of the State Emergency Service Act 1989),

(c)  an officer of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, New South Wales who is an inspector under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979,

(d)  a person who is employed by a management company for a managed correctional centre (within the meaning of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999) to perform duties at the correctional centre and who is authorised under section 240 of that Act to perform those duties,

(e)  an accredited certifier (within the meaning of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979).

(3)  A person who is a public official referred to in subsection (1) (b) or (c) is taken, for the purposes of this Act, to belong to the public authority with whom the relevant contract is made.