Doelle and Legal Aid Queensland
(1993 S0019, 24 November 1993
This is the first, and so far the only, formal decision the Information Commissioner has given in respect of Part 4 of the FOI Act, which deals with the amendment of information relating to a person's personal affairs. The result of the case turned on the fact that the applicant was unable to point to any evidence which established that any part of the information in issue was inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading. The Information Commissioner observed that, in the particular circumstances of this case, there was a practical or evidentiary onus on the applicant to do so, even though the ultimate legal onus remained on the respondent in accordance with s.81 of the FOI Act. The Information Commissioner also found that the words of s.55 of the FOI Act, which contemplate the making of amendments by altering information or adding an appropriate notation to information, do not comprehend or authorise the destruction or removal of documents.