Pflugrath and Gympie Regional Council
(210499, 16 March 2009)
The applicants applied for external review of the decision of Gympie Regional Council to refuse access to matter in issue in documents relating to complaints made in respect of activities undertaken at the applicants’ property, and records of action undertaken by Council in relation to those complaints.
Section 25(5)
Assistant Commissioner Corby considered the application of section 25(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 1992 (FOI Act) to the matter in issue and decided that because 15 of the documents in issue were created (or received) by Council after the date the FOI Application was received, she did not have jurisdiction to review the decision under review in relation to those 15 documents.
Section 44(1) Matter affecting personal affairs
In relation to the remaining documents, Assistant Commissioner Corby applied the principles in Stewart and Department of Transport (1993) 1 QAR 227 and Byrne and Gold Coast City Council (1994) 1 QAR 477, and found that the matter in issue concerned the personal affairs of persons other than the applicants and was, prima facie, exempt from disclosure under section 44(1) of the FOI Act, subject to the application of the public interest balancing test. Weighing the public interest considerations favouring disclosure against the public interest considerations favouring non-disclosure, Assistant Commissioner Corby found that the public interest favoured non-disclosure of the matter in issue to the applicants.
