ALZ v Lismore City Council

Civil and Administrative Tribunal

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	ALZ v Lismore City Council [2016] NSWCATAD 20
Hearing dates:	8 July 2015; 2 September 2015
Date of orders:	02 February 2016
Decision date:	02 February 2016
Jurisdiction:	Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division
Before:	S Montgomery - Senior Member
Decision:	1. The Tribunal has no jurisdiction to review those aspects of part (a) of the application to which the section 41 Direction applies. The Tribunal determines to take no further action in regard to the remainder of part (a) of the application. 2.   Part (b) of the application is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. 3.   Part (c) of the application is remitted for redetermination by the Council. The review is to be completed within 60 days from the date of this decision. The matter is listed for a further planning meeting on Tuesday 19 April 2016 at 9.30 am.
Catchwords:	Privacy – personal information - jurisdiction
Legislation Cited:	Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013
Cases Cited:	AET v Western NSW Local Health District AET v Rural and Remote Medical Services t/as Gulgong Medical Centre [ 2012] NSWADT 77: AQG v Crown Solicitor’s Office [2015] NSWCATAD 112 BCR v Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal [2014] NSWCATAD 79 Coco v R [1994] HCA 15 Harman v Secretary of State for the Home Department [1983] 1 AC 280 Hearne v Street [2008] HCA 36 NZ v Attorney General's Department [2005] NSWADT 103 ZR v Department of Education and Training [2010] NSWADTAP 75
Texts Cited:	Direction on Processing of Personal Information by Public Sector Agencies in relation to their Investigative Functions
Category:	Procedural and other rulings
Parties:	ALZ (Applicant) Lismore City Council (Respondent)
Representation:	Solicitors: ALZ (Applicant in person) Local Government NSW (Respondent)
File Number(s):	1410345

REASONS FOR DECISION

1. The Applicant has applied to the Tribunal for external review of alleged conduct of the Lismore City Council (“the Respondent” or “the Council”). The Application is made pursuant to the provisions of section 55 of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (“the PPIP Act”).

2. The Applicant sought review by the Tribunal because she was dissatisfied with the Council’s failure to conduct a review of a privacy complaint that she had raised in an internal review application dated 31 March 2014.

3. Section 53 of the PPIP Act provides for a person who is aggrieved by the conduct of a public sector agency to seek review of that conduct. Subsection 53(3) provides:

(3) An application for such a review must:

(a) be in writing, and

(b) be addressed to the public sector agency concerned, and

(c) specify an address in Australia to which a notice under subsection (8) may be sent, and

(d) be lodged at an office of the public sector agency within 6 months (or such later date as the agency may allow) from the time the applicant first became aware of the conduct the subject of the application, and