Price and Crime and Misconduct Commission

Price and Crime and Misconduct Commission
(2003 F0411, 2 June 2004) 

Personal affairs 

The applicant sought access to documents relating to an investigation by the respondent into allegations of official misconduct. The documents in issue comprised an investigation report, correspondence, and tape-recorded interviews and written summaries of interviews prepared during the investigation. 

With respect to matter in issue that would identify persons who had made complaints to the respondent, or who had provided the respondent with information during the course of its investigation, Assistant Commissioner Moss decided that such matter concerned the personal affairs of those persons and therefore was prima facie exempt from disclosure under s.44(1) of the FOI Act, subject to the application of the public interest balancing test incorporated within s.44(1). 

AC Moss considered that the public interest in protecting the privacy of the persons concerned, together with the strong public interest in protecting the continued flow of information to law enforcement agencies from concerned members of the community regarding allegations of possible wrongdoing, outweighed any public interest considerations weighing in favour of disclosure to the applicant of the matter in issue.  AC Moss therefore decided that disclosure of the matter in issue would not, on balance, be in the public interest and that it therefore qualified for exemption under s.44(1) of the FOI Act.