MIKE and Queensland Police Service
(2001 S0079, 30 June 2002)
The applicant was a minor who, through his mother and solicitors, sought access to details of police investigations into complaints made by him concerning alleged abuse at a school he attended.
The Deputy Information Commissioner decided that information supplied by the school in the form of statements and other documents was not exempt from disclosure to the applicant under s.46(1)(b) of the FOI Act, as any understanding of confidentiality must necessarily have been subject to the conditions discussed in McCann and Queensland Police Service (1998) 4 QAR 30 at paragraph 51.
He also found that information associating various individuals with alleged, but not proven, sexual misconduct was information concerning their personal affairs, but that disclosure to the applicant, subject to the deletion of identifying matter, would, on balance, be in the public interest by allowing the applicant to have sufficient details to gain an adequate understanding of the manner in which the QPS dealt with his complaints.