Hart and Department of Health; Copland (Third Party), Lombardo (Fourth party)

Application number:
2004 F0471
Decision date:
Friday, Sep 09, 2005

Hart and Queensland Health (Department of Health) ; Copland (Third Party), Lombardo (Fourth Party)
(2004 F0471, 9 September 2005)

Records of interviews in disciplinary investigation – application of s.40(c), s.46(1)(a) and s.46(1)(b)

The applicant applied for copies of transcripts of interviews with witnesses who participated in an investigation about the alleged wrongdoings of the applicant in the workplace.  As transcripts were not produced, the matter in issue comprised notes made by investigators on the pre-interview outlines or scripts used to interview the witnesses and two CD recordings of interviews with two third parties. 

Assistant Commissioner Barker found that portions of the interview recordings contained information that did not relate to the investigation involving the applicant and that the disclosure of that information could reasonably be expected to inhibit staff members of the respondent from volunteering such information in the future.   AC Barker decided that those parts of the recordings qualified for exemption under s.40(c) of the FOI Act. 

AC Barker found that there was no reasonable basis for expecting that disclosure of the notes on the pre-interview outlines or the remainder of the CD recordings of interviews would have a substantial adverse effect on the respondent and that such matter therefore did not qualify for exemption under s.40(c).  As the applicant had been given a detailed summary of the content of the remainder of the interviews, AC Barker considered that any substantial adverse effect on the respondent would have become apparent when the summary was provided to the applicant. 

The third parties contended that the recordings of the interviews were exempt under s.46(1)(a) or s.46(1)(b) of the FOI Act on the basis that the information they provided was communicated in confidence.  AC Barker found that it was not reasonable for the third party interviewees to expect that the information they provided would be kept confidential from other persons directly involved in the investigation and that the matter in issue therefore did not qualify for exemption under s.46(1)(a) or s.46(1)(b).