Croker v Health Care Complaints Commission [2022] NSWCATAD 294

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Croker v Health Care Complaints Commission [2022] NSWCATAD 294 Hearing dates: 22 August 2022 Date of orders: 1 September 2022 Decision date: 01 September 2022 Jurisdiction: Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division Before: M Griffin, Senior Member Decision: The Tribunal affirms the respondent's decision of 25 November 2021. Catchwords: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW-freedom of information- government information public access-complaint handling-excluded information-invalid application-Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) Legislation Cited: Administrative Decisions Review Act (NSW) 1997 Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 Cases Cited: Fearnley v Health Care Complaints Commission [2020] NSWCATAD 30 Beregi v Department of Planning, Industry and Environment [2020] NSWCATAP 185 Texts Cited: None cited Category: Principal judgment Parties: Patrick Croker (Applicant) Health Care Complaints Commission (Respondent) Representation: Applicant (Self-represented) Feneil Shah (Respondent) File Number(s): 2022/00153779 Publication restriction: None

REASONS FOR DECISION

Introduction 1. Mr Croker (the applicant) seeks review of a decision made by the Health Care Complaints Commission (the respondent) on 25 November 2021 refusing him access to information. The information was about the complaints Mr Croker had made concerning the treatment he received by a medical centre and certain medical doctors. Those complaints were considered and dealt with by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). Mr Croker requested access to the information considered by the HCCC in the complaint handling process. The access was denied on the basis that it was excluded information under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). 2. On 27 May 2022 the applicant filed an Administrative Review Application with this Tribunal. On 29 June 2022, the respondent sought an order dismissing the proceedings, as "misconceived or lacking in substance", pursuant to section 55(1)(b) of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) (NCAT Act). 3. It appears that due to clerical error the applicant's reply to the dismissal application was not before the Tribunal until the evening before the scheduled hearing of the matter. It was, in those circumstances, considered appropriate to deal with the application for dismissal at the outset of the scheduled hearing. 4. The matter came on for hearing on 22 August 2022. The Tribunal heard from both parties on the dismissal application and decided to proceed with the substantive review as both parties were present, the applicant wished to proceed, and the issue was essentially the same. That is, was the information sought by the applicant excluded information which could not be released to him.