Watkinson v Western Sydney University [2022] NSWCATAD 321

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Watkinson v Western Sydney University [2022] NSWCATAD 321 Hearing dates: 25 July 2022 Date of orders: 30 September 2022 Decision date: 30 September 2022 Jurisdiction: Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division Before: H Dixon SC, Senior Member Decision: (1) The decision under review is affirmed Catchwords: Administrative law – access to government information - requested material provided – no additional material held – searches – reasonable in all the circumstances – onus Legislation Cited: Administrative Decisions review Act 1997 (NSW) Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) Cases Cited: Davison v NSW Department of Education and Training [2013] NSWADT 25 Texts Cited: None Category: Principal judgment Parties: Trent William Watkinson (Applicant)

Western Sydney University (Respondent) Representation: Applicant (Self-represented)

Counsel: M McGirr (Respondent)

Solicitors: Bartier Perry (Respondent) File Number(s): 2022/00078230 Publication restriction: Nil

The Application 1. The Applicant applies for an external review pursuant to s 80 of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (the GIPA Act) of the decision of the Respondent (the University) made on 16 August 2021 and in respect of documents which he claims are held by the University and to which he says he has not been granted access. 2. Broadly stated the grounds relied upon by the Applicant in his application as filed in the Tribunal, are that some material sought by him was not made accessible, some material was not in access format sought, there was some evidence that documents said by the University not to be held exists, and also an issue about the redaction of the contents of certain documents in respect of which access was provided. 3. By letter dated 20 May 2022, and in opening submissions at the hearing of this application, the Applicant refined his claims as follows: Matters of both form of access and missing/not held information are pressed within limited scopes, as follows: 1. Provision of access, to direct copies of the original versions of those records specifically requested, that appears granted but not yet provided by the respondent, also being in the access format requested (i.e. DVD-R); or, if the records are in fact not held, clear formal communication of a decision by the respondent as to which of those specifically requested records to which access has been granted are not in fact held (if such is not already issued). The records pertaining to this matter to which provision of access is requested are as follows: a. Allegation documents referred to as staff reports by Dr James Arvanitakis in an email I received from him on 5th June 2019 and created prior to 15th July 2019. 1. The Applicant explained that his intention in paragraph 1a. was to capture all documents referred to as "staff reports" up to and including 15 July 2019. Documents in DVD-R format have, as the Tribunal understands the position, been provided to the Applicant. 2. The scope of this review by the Tribunal is thus now of very narrow ambit.