Office of the Minister for Employment Training and Industrial Relations and Department of Mines and Energy

Office of the Minister for Employment Training and Industrial Relations and Department of Mines and Energy
(2000 S0204, 13 October 2000) 

This was an application by the Minister to review the Department's decision to give an FOI access applicant access to certain information.  The Minister complained that he had not been consulted by the Department under s.51(1) of the FOI Act prior to its decision to disclose the information. 

The Information Commissioner discussed the jurisdictional issue raised by s.71(1)(f)(ii) of the FOI Act which empowers the Information Commissioner to conduct a review where a person is aggrieved by an agency's failure to consult that person in accordance with s.51(1) of the FOI Act.  The Information Commissioner stated that he tended to the view that the reasons given by the Department's internal review decision-maker for not consulting the applicant were adequate and that consultation was not necessary. 

However, the Information Commissioner went on to consider the substantive complaint of the Minister's Office, i.e., the contention that the information in issue may have been exempt from disclosure under s.42(1)(a) of the FOI Act, because its disclosure could reasonably be expected to prejudice a pending inquest into a fireworks-related death.  The Information Commissioner found that there was no evidence to show that disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to prejudice the coronial inquiry, and that it therefore did not qualify for exemption under s.42(1)(a) of the FOI Act.