Reynolds and Redland Shire Council

Reynolds and Redland Shire Council
(1997 L0028, 10 March 1998) 

This case required the Information Commissioner to determine claims for exemption in respect of parts of a Council report which referred to two witnesses and summarised the evidence they gave in Court proceedings against the applicant. 

After considering the transcript of those proceedings, and finding that the matter in issue and the identities of the witnesses had been revealed in open court, the Information Commissioner found that none of the exemption claims was made out.  The two witnesses were not 'confidential sources of information' vis-à-vis the applicant for the purposes of s.42(1)(b), and the summaries of their evidence were not 'confidential in nature' to satisfy the elements of s.46(1)(b).