Seremetis v Commissioner of Police; Seremetis v Department of Communities and Justice [2020] NSWCATAD 317

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Seremetis v Commissioner of Police; Seremetis v Department of Communities and Justice [2020] NSWCATAD 317 Hearing dates: 19 December 2019; last submissions received 7 July 2020 Date of orders: 17 December 2020 Decision date: 17 December 2020 Jurisdiction: Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division Before: S Goodman SC, Senior Member Decision: The Tribunal makes the following orders: (1) In matter 2019/00218808 the Respondent's name is amended to "Department of Communities and Justice". (2) The decision made by the Commissioner of Police, NSW Police on 30 September 2019 is varied as follows: (a) The applicant is granted access to the information redacted from: (i) The second half of page 10 of the Triage Complaint Form (InfoLink page 10); (ii) The Incident Report of First Class Correctional Officer Gaven (InfoLink page 49); (iii) The Incident Report of Assistant Superintendent Naati (InfoLink page 50); (iv) The Corrective Services Reporting Form dated 27 October 2016 (InfoLink page 51); (v) The COPS enquiry (InfoLink page 83); (vi) The emails from Francine Couch to Sergeant Donnellan and Senior Constable Gallagher dated 7 March 2017 (InfoLink pages 205-206); (vii) The email from Inspector Laird to Francene Couch dated 22 August 2018, other than the second and third lines of that email (InfoLink page 211); (viii) The email from Inspector Laird to Francene Couch dated 13 November 2018 (InfoLink pages 230-231); (b) Such access is to be provided within 28 days; (3) The decision made by the Commissioner of Police, NSW Police on 30 September 2019 is otherwise affirmed; (4) The decision of the Commissioner of Police, NSW Police, dated 23 October 2019 is affirmed; (5) The decision of the Department of Communities and Justice dated 4 September 2019 is affirmed. Catchwords: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – access to government information – access application – public interests in favour of disclosure – public interests against disclosure – whether overriding public interest against disclosure – whether to refuse to deal with application on the basis of a previous application for the information concerned – whether information held by agency Legislation Cited: Administrative Decisions Review Act 1997 Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Regulation 2014 Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 Police Act 1990 Police Regulation 2015 Cases Cited: Applicants v Commissioner of Police [2015] NSWCATAD 22 Choi v Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force [2020] NSWCATAP 211 Commissioner of Police v Danis [2017] NSWCATAP 7 Commissioner of Police, New South Wales Police Force v Camilleri [2012] NSWADTAP 19 Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force v Barrett [2015] NSWCATAP 68 Fire Brigade Employees' Union v Fire and Rescue (NSW) [2014] NSWCATAD 113 Flack v Commissioner of Police, New South Wales Police [2011] NSWADT 286 Forbidden Foods Pty Ltd v Rice Marketing Board of New South Wales [2020] NSWCATAD 18 Hurst v Wagga Wagga City Council [2011] NSWADT 307 Luxford v Department of Education and Communities (NSW) [2016] NSWCATAD 118 Macquarie University v Howell (No 2) [2009] NSWADTAP 19 Martin v Commissioner of Police, NSW Police [2005] NSWADT 23 McMahon v Director General, Department of Fair Training [2003] NSWADT 164 McMillan v Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force; Brady v Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force [2013] NSWADT 53 Meacham v Commissioner of Police [2020] NSWCATAP 107 Miskelly v Transport for NSW [2017] NSWCATAD 207 Nature Conservation Council v Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services (NSW) [2012] NSWADT 195 Newcastle City Council v Newcastle East Residents Action Group [2018] NSWCATAP 254 Page v Commissioner of Police [2020] NSWCATAD 163 Re Waterford and Department of the Treasury (No 2) (1984) 5 ALD 588 Seremetis v Department of Communities and Justice [2019] NSWCATAP 262 Seremetis v NSW Department of Justice [2019] NSWCATAD 118 Taylor v Office of Destination NSW [2018] NSWCATAD 195 Transport for NSW v Searle [2018] NSWCATAP 93 University of New South Wales v McGuirk [2006] NSWSC 1362 Wojciechowska v Commissioner of Police [2020] NSWCATAP 173 Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: In 2019/00188752 and 2019/00255268: Nick Seremetis (Applicant) Commissioner of Police (Respondent)