Candy and Environmental Protection Agency
(210218, 30 January 2008)
Sufficiency of search
The applicant in this case sought access to documents relating to the removal of a kangaroo from his residence in 2001 as well as documents regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s practices and procedure in general. The applicant contends that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not located and dealt with all documents that were requested in his application.
Assistant Commissioner Corby applied the principles set out in Shepherd and Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning (1994) 1 QAR 464 to each item of the applicant’s application in issue in this review. Assistant Commissioner Corby was satisfied that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that there were further documents, which satisfy the terms of the applicant’s application, in the EPA’s possession or control.
Section 29B Refusal to deal with application – previous application for same documents
The applicant contends that the EPA was not entitled to refuse to deal with some parts of his application under section 29B of the FOI Act on the basis that the applicant had previously applied for the same documents. Assistant Commissioner Corby was satisfied that the documents requested in the relevant parts of the applicant’s application were the documents sought under an earlier application, the EPA’s decision on the earlier application had been the subject of a completed external review and the applicant’s application had not disclosed any reasonable basis for again seeking access to the documents. Assistant Commissioner Corby found that the EPA was entitled to refuse to deal with some parts of the applicant’s application under section 29B of the FOI Act.
