Mitchell and Gold Coast City Council

Mitchell and Gold Coast City Council
(2004 F0201, 15 June 2005) 

Identity of a confidential source of information – personal affairs 

The applicant sought access to information about his own and an adjoining property, including any complaints which had been made to the Council about him or his property.  (During the course of the review, the applicant withdrew his claim for access to any matter which only concerned the personal affairs of the persons who had made complaints about building work on the applicant’s property.) 

The Council contended that all but two of the documents originally in issue were exempt under s.42(1)(b) of the FOI Act, as they would identify the complainants, and did not resile from that view.  The applicant, however, was in possession of a copy of a letter from a Councillor which identified the complainants.  Assistant Commissioner Barker therefore found that the matter remaining in issue did not qualify for exemption under s.42(1)(b).  AC Barker also found that the matter remaining in issue did not qualify for exemption under s.44(1) of the FOI Act, as it comprised information about the applicant’s property and building work on the applicant’s house.