Price and Gatton Shire Council

Price and Gatton Shire Council
(2006 F0320, 15 May 2007)

Sufficiency of search

The applicant contended that documents existed that related to a motion that was passed at a Gatton Shire Council (GSC) meeting on 17 May 2006 in relation to him, and that such documents had not been disclosed to him in response to his freedom of information application to GSC.  Specifically, the applicant submitted that GSC had sought legal advice with respect to the motion and had made reference to such advice when the motion was passed.  GSC contended that it did not seek any legal advice with respect to the motion and no documents of any kind existed (other than the minutes of the meeting) that related to the motion.  The minutes of the meeting did not indicate that any documents had been tabled or referred to when passing the motion. Further, GSC FOI Decision Maker, Mr Derek Sellers submitted that he did not recall any reference being made to legal advice when the motion was passed at the meeting, and that this recollection was confirmed after listening to the audio recordings of the meeting.

In the course of the review GSC made further searches of their general files without locating any documents concerning legal advice of the kind the applicant contended were in existence.  Additionally, GSC searched their accounts payable files for any reference to legal accounts being paid around the time of the 17 May 2006 meeting that may be responsive to the applicant’s application.  None were identified.  Assistant Commissioner Corby found that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that documents evidencing that GSC sought legal advice in relation to the motion concerning the applicant that was passed at a GSC meeting on 17 May 2006 existed within the possession or under the control of GSC. Further Assistant Commissioner Corby was satisfied that the searches undertaken by GSC to locate such documents were reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.