Long and Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water

Application number:
2006 F0116
Decision date:
Friday, Feb 23, 2007

Long and Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water
 (2006 F0116, 23 February 2007)

Sufficiency of search

The applicants in this case contended that the searches undertaken the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water (the Department) to locate documents relating to the water source on their former property were not sufficient.  The applicants contended that there was reason to believe that further documents existed in the Department’s possession or control in relation to incidents mentioned in the minutes of meetings of an advisory committee.  The applicants also submitted that video footage of a particular property should exist. Further searches were performed during the course of the review, but no further documents responsive to the applicants’ freedom of information application were located. 

Applying the principles stated in Shepherd and Department of Housing, Local Government & Planning (1994) 1 QAR 464, Assistant Commissioner Corby affirmed the decision under review as she was satisfied that there were no reasonable grounds for believing that there exists any further documents falling within the terms of the applicants’ freedom of information access application, in the possession or under the control of the Department.  The searches and inquiries conducted by the Department in an effort to locate any further responsive documents were reasonable in all the circumstances of the case