Eggleton v Secretary, Department of Communities and Justice [2022] NSWCATAD 67

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Eggleton v Secretary, Department of Communities and Justice [2022] NSWCATAD 67 Date of orders: 1 March 2022 Decision date: 01 March 2022 Jurisdiction: Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division Before: K Ransome, Senior Member Decision: (1) The applicant's application to extend time for the lodging of the application is dismissed. (2) The applicant's application to the Tribunal for administrative review of the respondent's decision of 28 August 2019 is also dismissed. Catchwords: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – Freedom of information -application for review out of time - whether reasonable excuse for the delay Legislation Cited: Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 Cases Cited: Thomson v Sydney Trains [2015] NSWCATAD 257 Turner v Commissioner of Police, NSW Police Force [2014] NSWCATAP 4 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Rickie Eggleton (Applicant) Secretary, Department of Communities and Justice (Respondent) Representation: Applicant (Self-Represented) Respondent (by its employed solicitor) File Number(s): 2021/00115350

REASONS FOR DECISION 1. The applicant, Rickie Eggleton, applied to the Tribunal on 26 April 2021 for review of a decision made by the respondent, the Secretary, Department of Communities and Justice (the Department), under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act). The decision under review was made on 28 August 2019 and posted to Mr Eggleton that day. Under s 101(1) of the GIPA Act Mr Eggleton was required to make his application to the Tribunal within 40 working days after he was given notice of the decision. At the time, Mr Eggleton was in custody under the supervision of Corrective Services NSW and remains so. There is agreement that Mr Eggleton was provided with the decision on 30 August 2019 but that he had no further access to it until 20 April 2020. 2. The issue that I must decide is whether Mr Eggleton should be granted an extension of time within which to make his application to the Tribunal. Under section 101(4) of the GIPA Act the Tribunal can, on the application of a person wanting to make an application, extend the time for the making of an application if it "is of the opinion that the person has provided a reasonable excuse for the delay in making the application". Both Mr Eggleton and the Department have made written submissions about whether Mr Eggleton has provided a reasonable excuse for delay in making the application. The parties also appeared before the Tribunal at a hearing on 6 October 2021.