Redcliffe City Council and Department of Police

Redcliffe City Council and Queensland Police Service
(1998 S0124, 28 January 1999) 

The applicant sought external review of the QPS's deemed refusal of access to documents relating to the investigation, by the QPS, of a complaint by the applicant against the Redcliffe Star, a publication of the Redcliffe Ratepayers Association. 

The QPS was prepared to disclose to the applicant all relevant documents in its possession, but an objection was lodged by a third party to the disclosure of a transcript of an interview between the third party and an officer of the QPS.  The third party claimed that the interview was conducted in confidence, and that information provided by the third party was to be used only if the QPS laid charges in relation to the publication of the Redcliffe Star. 

The Information Commissioner found no evidence that the information provided by the third party was provided in confidence; indeed, some of it (barbed comments and counter-threats in what appeared to be an ongoing 'tit-for-tat' political controversy) appeared to have been communicated by the third party with the understanding, intention or desire that it be relayed to the applicant. 

The Information Commissioner decided that the transcript of the interview with the third party was not exempt matter under s.46(1) of the FOI Act, but that a small amount of matter in the transcript did qualify for exemption under s.44(1) of the FOI Act.