Irvine v Temora Shire Council [2022] NSWCATAD 38

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Irvine v Temora Shire Council [2022] NSWCATAD 38 Hearing dates: 17 December 2021 Date of orders: 2 February 2022 Decision date: 02 February 2022 Jurisdiction: Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division Before: H Dixon SC, Senior Member Decision: The application dated 20 September 2021 for access to information be dismissed. Catchwords: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – refusal to provide access to information in response to access application – access then provided Legislation Cited: Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) Administrative Decisions Review Act 1997 (NSW) Category: Principal judgment Parties: Anthony Irvine (Applicant) Temora Shire Council (Respondent) Representation: Applicant (self-represented) E Smith (Director of Administration and Finance Temora Shire Council) (Respondent) File Number(s): 2021/00273218 Publication restriction: Nil

Reasons for decision 1. By application dated 20 September 2021 the Applicant sought a review of a decision of the Respondent (the Council) made on 11 March 2021 under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (the GIPA Act) to deny access to certain information sought by the Applicant. 2. After its initial decision to refuse to provide access to the information sought by the Applicant in his access application of that date, and following a review by the Information and Privacy Commissioner NSW in a report dated 21 July 2021, and a case management conference in the Tribunal, the Council carried out a new review and in a decision dated 11 November 2021 concluded that the overriding public interest was in favour of disclosure of the information requested by the Applicant. The Applicant was then provided with the information sought. 3. In those circumstances, and for the reasons that follow, the application must be dismissed.