Price and Gatton Shire Council

Application number:
2003 S0042
Decision date:
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Price and Gatton Shire Council
 (2003 S0042, 17 May 2005) 

Sufficiency of search 

This was a deemed refusal of access by the Council to documents concerning the applicant, his family or his property.  Additional documents were identified and located during the course of the review, and the applicant was eventually given access to a substantial number of documents.  AC Barker decided that some documents to which the applicant requested access during the course of the review were outside the terms of the initial FOI access application, and that some other documents were excluded from the operation of the FOI Act by s.12 (which excludes the Commissioner and documents of the Commissioner.)  AC Barker was satisfied that the searches and inquiries conducted by the Council in an attempt to locate all documents responsive to the terms of the applicant's FOI access application had been reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, and that there were no reasonable grounds for believing that additional documents existed in the possession or control of the Council. 

AC Barker also decided that some of the documents located by the Council qualified for exemption from disclosure, in full or in part, under s.42(1)(e), s.43(1) or s.44(1) of the FOI Act.