Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Psychologists Board of Australia (310303)

Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Psychologists Board of Australia

(310303, 3 January 2012)

Section 55 of the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) – whether agency is entitled to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation report relating to a particular named practitioner

The applicant applied to the agency under the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) (RTI Act) for access to an investigation report about a particular named practitioner (Requested Report).

The agency decided to:

• refuse to deal with the access application under section 40 of the RTI Act because:
  • it was expressed to relate to all documents, or to all documents of a stated class, that contain information of a stated kind or relate to a stated subject matter; and
  • all of the documents to which the application relates are comprised of exempt information
• neither confirm nor deny the existence of the Requested Report under section 55 of the RTI Act because, assuming its existence, it would be a document to which access would be refused to the extent it comprised prescribed information.

The applicant applied to the Office of Information Commissioner for external review of the decision.

Assistant Commissioner Jefferies affirmed the agency’s decision to neither confirm nor deny the existence of the Requested Report.