Dekker and The University of Queensland

Dekker and The University of Queensland
(1993 S0033, 28 October 1999)

The applicant sought access to a number of documents in connection with injuries she sustained while employed by the respondent between the early 1950s and the early 1970s.  There were a number of documents, including medical certificates dating back to the 1950s and accident investigation reports dating back to the early 1970s, which the applicant considered should have been among the documents disclosed to her.

Applying the principles stated in Shepherd and Department of Housing, Local Government & Planning (1994) 1 QAR 464, the Information Commissioner determined that the documents sought either did not exist as documents in the possession or control of the respondent, or that the efforts the respondent had made to locate the documents were reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.  The Information Commissioner also found that information comprising home addresses of staff members and former staff members of the respondent who provided statements during an investigation of the complaints made by the applicant to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administrative Investigations, was exempt matter under s.44(1) of the FOI Act.