Kazakhstan Potash Corporation Limited and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Freedom of information)

This matter concerned an application for review of a decision by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to refuse access to certain documents under the *Freedom of Information Act 1982* (Cth). The applicant, Kazakhstan Potash Corporation Limited (KPC), sought review of the Information Commissioner's decision that seven documents, previously refused by ASIC, were not exempt. KPC was particularly concerned with Document 36.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the documents in question were conditionally exempt from disclosure under section 47G(1)(a) of the *Freedom of Information Act 1982*, which pertains to documents where disclosure would unreasonably affect the lawful business, commercial, or financial affairs of an organisation. The court was required to determine if the potential impact of disclosure on the business affairs of the entities involved was sufficiently unreasonable to warrant exemption.

The court reasoned that the *Corporations Act 2001* (Cth) governs the disclosure of information when offering securities to investors, requiring prospectuses to contain all information that investors and their professional advisers would reasonably require to make an informed assessment. The court noted that if an offer of securities requires disclosure, the information is ultimately placed on the public record. Consequently, the court found that disclosure of the documents would not unreasonably affect the lawful business, commercial, or financial affairs of the entities. The court concluded that the public interest was not a factor to be considered in this specific exemption and that the documents were therefore not conditionally exempt.