Under the Right to Information Act 20091(Qld) (RTI Act) Queensland government agencies2 may, in certain circumstances, refuse to deal with applications for documents that the applicant has previously applied for under either the RTI or IP Act.
Section 43 of the RTI Act enables an agency to refuse to deal with an application (or part of an application) where:
The current application must be for the same documents previously applied for, but it does not need to phrased identically to the previous application.
In T95 and Queensland Police Service3, the previous application was for documents relating to ‘an examination authority’. The later application was for documents relating to ‘execution of involuntary order to the mental health board’. Based on the subject matter of the applications and the documents located in the first application, the Commissioner was satisfied that the scope of the later application captured the same information requested in the first application.
The first application can still be active, ie a decision has not yet been issued, when the agency refuses to deal with the second application.
An agency can only refuse to deal with an application to the extent it seeks access to the same documents previously applied for. If part of the application is for new documents, that part must be dealt with.
An applicant applied one year ago for 'all documents about dog attacks from 1 January 2016 until now'. Part of the application will be for documents previously applied for and part of it will be for new documents.
The documents from 1 January 2016 until the date of the first application will be previously applied for and the agency can refuse to deal with that part of the application. However, all documents dating from the day after the first application until the date of their second application will be new documents, and the agency will need to process them.
Both decisions should be made together at the end of the process.
An agency can refuse to deal with a later application for the same documents even if the first application was, or currently is, the subject of a review.4
Each agency must determine whether any grounds for reapplying given by the applicant are reasonable, however these could include a change in circumstances that will impact the documents. For example, if access was previously refused because the release would prejudice an ongoing investigation which is now finalised, the fact that the investigation is finalised would be a reasonable basis for reapplying.
Other reasons could include the loss or destruction of the documents, a change in family relationships or family circumstances that could alter the weighting of the public interest factors, expiry of a confidentiality clause, or the applicant having new information.
Current as at: May 20, 2020