Price and Gatton Shire Council

Price and Gatton Shire Council
(2002 L0033, 28 May 2003) 

The applicant had sought access to all records of the respondent relating to defamation proceedings brought by the respondent's Chief Executive Officer against a number of third parties.  The applicant failed to respond to a request, made by the respondent under s.28(2) of the FOI Act, that he narrow the scope of his access application, but then applied for external review of the respondent's deemed refusal of access.  Details of the work required to identify, locate and collate the relevant documents were obtained from the respondent. 

Assistant Commissioner Moss decided that, on the basis of the respondent's submissions, the Council was entitled, under s.28(2) of the FOI Act, to refuse to deal with the applicant's FOI access application, because to do so would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the respondent from the performance of its functions, having regard only to the number and volume of the requested documents, and the difficulty that would exist in identifying, locating and collating those documents within the respondent's filing system.