Heisner and Logan City Council

Application number:
2004 F0538
Decision date:
Friday, Dec 17, 2004

Heisner and Logan City Council
 (2004 F0538, 17 December 2004) 

Personal affairs 

(Note: The document in issue in this review was also in issue in review 2004 F0257) 

The applicant sought access to names, signatures and residential addresses which would identify third parties who raised concerns with the Council about activities carried out on the applicant's property.  One of those third parties had written to the Council on behalf of all of them as members of a Concerned Residents Group (the CRG). 

The applicant contended that the third party who wrote to the Council was acting in a representative capacity as the group's spokesperson, and that the residential address of that person (which is also the address for correspondence of the CRG) did not concern the third party's personal affairs. 

AC Barker held that while the third parties collective wrote to their local Councillor under the umbrella of the CRG, this did not mean that its members were contacting their local Councillor in other than a personal capacity.  Applying the principles in Stewart and Department of Transport (1993) 1 QAR 227, Byrne and the Gold Coast City Council (1994) 1 QAR 477 and Pearce and Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority; Various Landlords (Third Parties) (1995) 5 QAR 242, AC Barker found that the matter in issue was properly to be characterised as information concerning the personal affairs of the members of the CRG and that disclosure of the matter in issue would not, on balance, be in the public interest.  The applicant had been given access to the text of the letter of complaint and was aware of the issues raised with the Council.  AC Barker found that the matter in issue was exempt under s.44(1) of the FOI Act.