Luder and Hervey Bay City Council

Application number:
210002
Decision date:
Monday, Oct 30, 2006

Luder and Hervey Bay City Council
(210002, 30 October 2006)

Section 73(1)(d) – application for extension of time 

The applicant lodged an application for an extension of time to apply for external review as his application was outside the 28 day time limit prescribed by s.73(1)(d) of the FOI Act.  The time within which an applicant may lodge an application for external review was reduced from 60 days to 28 days by the May 2005 amendments to the FOI Act.  In its internal review decision, the Council misled the applicant as to the correct time limit and advised the applicant he had 60 days in which to apply for external review.  The application for external review was however lodged outside even the 60 day time limit. 

Assistant Commissioner Corby was not satisfied that the applicant had provided an acceptable reason for the delay in accordance with the principles stated in Re Young and Workers' Compensation Board of Qld (1994) 1 QAR 543. 

Also in accordance with the principles stated in Young and Workers' Compensation Board of Queensland (1994) 1 QAR 543, AC Corby considered the merits of the substantive application. 

The applicant’s application was on the basis of the ‘sufficiency of search’ undertaken by the Council for responsive documents.  AC Corby was satisfied there were no reasonable grounds to believe that there were further documents in the Council’s possession or control and that the searches performed had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case. 

AC Corby decided that: 

·       the applicant had not provided an acceptable reason for the delay; and

·       the applicant’s application had no reasonable prospects of success 

and, accordingly, declined to exercise the discretion under section 73(1)(d) of the FOI Act.