Francis and Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (Freedom of information)

This matter concerned an application under the *Freedom of Information Act 1982* (Cth) (the Act) by Mr Francis seeking access to documents from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA). Mr Francis sought the dates of anti-doping tests conducted on six players from the Essendon Football Club. ASADA contended that the documents were exempt from disclosure. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) was required to determine whether the requested documents were exempt from disclosure under the Act.

The Tribunal was required to consider ASADA's grounds for exemption, which included that disclosure would found an action for breach of confidence under section 45 of the Act, that disclosure would have a substantially adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of ASADA's operations under section 47E(d) of the Act, and that disclosure would be contrary to the public interest under section 11A(5) of the Act. The Tribunal's task involved interpreting the provisions of the Act relating to access rights, exempt documents, and the public interest test for conditionally exempt documents.

The Tribunal found that the dates of the anti-doping tests were exempt documents pursuant to section 45 of the Act, as their disclosure would found an action for breach of confidence. Consequently, the Tribunal determined it was unnecessary to consider the alternative grounds for exemption or to apply the public interest test under section 11A(5). The Tribunal noted that Mr Francis's request was limited to the dates only and did not seek personal identifying information of the players. Despite this, the Tribunal accepted evidence from ASADA that the dates, when combined with other publicly available information, could be used to identify patterns in testing, thereby potentially undermining the integrity of the anti-doping regime.