Dimitrijev and Parliamentary Commissioner for Administrative Investigations

Application number:
1999 S0183
Decision date:
Thursday, Nov 02, 2000

Dimitrijev and Parliamentary Commissioner for Administrative Investigations
(1999 S0183, 2 November 2000) 

In 1998, the applicant had complained to the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner (the Ombudsman) about alleged misconduct by officers of Education Queensland.  As she was not satisfied with the Ombudsman's investigation, she applied for access to her complaint file.  The Ombudsman's Office failed to make a decision on her application, but agreed during the course of the review to give the applicant access to all but one of the documents relating to her complaint.  The applicant wanted access to that document because she believed it was a forgery used to "cover up" Education Queensland's unfair treatment of her.  She also maintained that there should be further documents on her file. 

The Deputy Information Commissioner found that there were no reasonable grounds to expect that there were any additional documents which had not been located and dealt with by the Ombudsman's Office in the course of the review; and that disclosure to the applicant of the document remaining in issue (an assessment record in respect of another teacher) could reasonably be expected to have an adverse effect on the quality of future assessment and referee reports.  As there was no evidence to support the applicant's claim that the document was a forgery, the Deputy Information Commissioner found that there was no public interest in its disclosure, and that it was exempt from disclosure under s.40(c) of the FOI Act.