Vynque Pty Ltd and Department of Primary Industries; Mario Urzi Sand & Gravel (Third Party)

Vynque Pty Ltd and Department of Primary Industries; Mario Urzi Sand & Gravel (Third Party)
(1996 S0194, 24 June 1998) 

The matter in issue in this case consisted of information relating to the terms of sale set by the respondent for the extraction by the third party (a commercial operator) of sand and gravel from the Fitzroy River.  The applicant wished to obtain access to figures showing the total amounts of material permitted by the respondent to be extracted, the minimum amounts of material required by the respondent to be extracted annually, and the actual amounts extracted by the third party.

Both the respondent and the third party claimed that the matter in issue was exempt from disclosure under s.45(1)(c) of the FOI Act.  Applying the principles in Cannon and Australian Quality Egg Farms Ltd (1994) 1 QAR 491, the Information Commissioner decided that the second requirement for exemption under s.45(1)(c) was not satisfied - that disclosure of the matter in issue could not reasonably be expected to have an adverse effect on the business, commercial or financial affairs of either the respondent or the third party, and that it therefore was not exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act. 

Although it strictly was not necessary for the Information Commissioner to do so, given that finding, the Information Commissioner went on to discuss the public interest balancing test contained in s.45(1)(c).  The Information Commissioner decided that even if the matter in issue was found to have satisfied the second requirement for exemption under s.45(1)(c), the public interest considerations favouring disclosure (i.e., to enable monitoring of the Department's management of a public resource) would, in the Information Commissioner's opinion, have warranted a finding that disclosure of the matter in issue would, on balance, be in the public interest.