Meldon and Brisbane City Council

Meldon and Brisbane City Council
(2001 L0029, 26 June 2001) 

The applicant sought access to complaints made to the Brisbane City Council about unauthorised noise and nuisance run-off from his property.  The Council granted access to five pages, subject to the deletion of the names and other identifying particulars of the complainants. 

Applying the principles stated in Byrne and Gold Coast City Council (1994) 1 QAR 477, Assistant Information Commissioner Shoyer decided that the matter to which the applicant sought access was information concerning the personal affairs of the complainants and that disclosure of the matter in issue would not, on balance, be in the public interest.  He therefore found that the matter in issue was exempt under s.44(1) of the FOI Act. The Assistant Information Commissioner also considered the application of s.42(1)(b) of that FOI Act and was satisfied that the matter in issue also qualified for exemption under that provision.