Henderson and Queensland Law Society Inc.

Henderson and Queensland Law Society Inc.
(1998 S0191, 29 June 2001) 

The matter in issue comprised performance appraisal documents for two QLS employees. 

The Information Commissioner decided that those documents were exempt from disclosure under s.40(c) of the FOI Act.  The Information Commissioner also upheld the QLS's reliance upon s.28(2) of the FOI Act in refusing to process parts of the applicant's FOI access application. 

However, the Information Commissioner rejected a submission from the QLS employees (who were third party participants in the review) that the Information Commissioner should exercise the discretion given to me under s.77(1) of the FOI Act, and decide not to conduct the review on the grounds that the applicant's application for review was vexatious. 

The Information Commissioner noted that, during the course of the review, the Commissioner had communicated to the QLS and to the third party participants, the preliminary view that a number of the documents which were in issue did not qualify for exemption under the FOI Act.  The QLS and the third parties subsequently withdrew their claims for exemption in respect of a number of those documents, and the applicant was given access to them. 

Accordingly, the Information Commissioner did not consider that it could be said that the applicant's application for external review had been instituted without sufficient grounds and the Information Commissioner therefore declined to exercise the discretion conferred on the Commissioner by s.77(1) of the FOI Act.