Vranic v Director, Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales (GD) [2001] NSWADTAP 23

Appeal Panel

CITATION: Vranic v Director, Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales (GD) [2001] NSWADTAP 23 APPLICANT Ljubica Vranic RESPONDENT PARTIES: Director, Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales

RESPONDENT Director, Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales FILE NUMBER: 019017 HEARING DATES: 17/07/01 SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: 07/17/2001 DATE OF DECISION: 07/23/2001

Vranic v Director, Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales [2001] NSW ADT 59 DECISION UNDER APPEAL: BEFORE: Hennessy N (Deputy President); Robinson MA - Judicial Member; Mapperson K - Member CATCHWORDS: no question of law identified MATTER FOR DECISION: Principal matter FILE NUMBER UNDER APPEAL: 013026 DATE OF DECISION UNDER APPEAL: 04/19/2001 LEGISLATION CITED : Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 Freedom of Information Act 1989 CASES CITED: APPLICANT REPRESENTATION: In person RESPONDENT J Walker, solicitor ORDERS: Orders made on 17 July 2001: 1 Appeal dismissed.

Introduction 1 On 3 May 2001, Ms Vranic appealed against a decision of the Tribunal made on 19 April 2001. The Tribunal's decision affirmed the decision of the Director, Legal Aid Commission of NSW to give Ms Vranic access to a document with certain information deleted. The document is an archival record sheet headed "The Government Records Repository, Details of Cartons Packed for Storage in the Government Records Repositories." The document lists all files held in the archival storage box in which Ms Vranic's file was held. Ms Vranic was given access to the document with other people's names and file numbers deleted. 2 The Tribunal affirmed the decision of the Director of the Legal Aid Commission not to give Ms Vranic access to those parts of the documents containing other people's names and file numbers. The basis for that decision was that the information was exempt under the personal affairs exemption, (Clause 6 to Schedule 1 of the FOI Act) the confidentiality exemption, (Clause 13 of Schedule 1 to the FOI Act and the secrecy exemption (Clause 12 of Schedule 1 to the FOI Act). 3 The Tribunal relied on the personal affairs and confidentiality exemptions. The personal affairs exemption states that: (1) A document is an exempt document if it contains matter the disclosure of which would involve the unreasonable disclosure of information concerning the personal affairs of any person (whether living or deceased). (2) A document is not an exempt document by virtue of this clause merely because it contains information concerning the person by or on whose behalf an application for access to the document is being made. 4 The confidentiality exemption states that: A document is an exempt document (a) if it contains matter the disclosure of which would found an action for breach of confidence, or (b) if it contains matter the disclosure of which: (i) would otherwise disclose information obtained in confidence, and (ii) could reasonably be expected to prejudice the future supply of such information to the Government or to an agency, and (iii) would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest. 5 In relation to the people whose names appeared on the document, the Tribunal found that "it would be an unreasonable intrusion into their personal affairs for their identities to be made known to the applicant." The Tribunal also found that disclosure would breach the confidentiality of the solicitor client relationship and that there were no public interest factors that might justify the Tribunal in setting aside the decision.