Kerekes and Centrelink FOI

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2008] AATA 268

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No 2007/1408

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE  DIVISION		)
Re		BEVERLEY KEREKES

Applicant

And CENTRELINK FOI

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Senior Member R W Dunne

Date4 April 2008

PlaceAdelaide

Decision The Tribunal affirms the decision under review.

..............................................

R W DUNNE
  (Senior Member)

2.      At the hearing, the applicant represented herself by telephone.  The respondent was represented by Ms Margaret Boylan, an advocate with the Centrelink Legal Services Branch.  The T documents (Exhibit R1) and the supplementary T documents (Exhibit R2), pursuant to s 37 of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975, were tendered before the Tribunal, along with the following:

·the applicant’s submission to the Tribunal, together with accompanying documents (Exhibit A1);

·additional documents from the applicant (Exhibit A2);

·the witness statement of Judith Anne Moller dated 3 December 2007, together with Attachments A to E (Exhibit R3);

·the witness statement of Lynne Mary Makin dated 4 December 2007 (Exhibit R4);

·the witness statement of Lee-Anne Odgers dated 5 December 2007 (Exhibit R5);

·the further witness statement of Lee-Anne Odgers dated 12 December 2007, together with Attachment A (Exhibit R6); and

·Centrelink’s “Policy for Recordkeeping” (Exhibit R7).

issues for the tribunal

3.      The Tribunal has to consider the following issues:

(a)whether all reasonable steps have been taken to find the documents requested by the applicant; and

(b)whether the Tribunal is satisfied that the documents requested by the applicant cannot be found or do not exist.

legislation

4. Section 11(1) of the Act provides that:

“(1)Subject to this Act, every person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access in accordance with this Act to:

(a)      a document of an agency, other than an exempt document; or

(b)an official document of a Minister, other than an exempt document.

…”

It is clear from the terms in which the right of access is couched that it is a qualified right.  The first qualification is that it is a right to have access to “a document of an agency” or to “an official document of a Minister”.  Insofar as an agency is concerned, that means the right is access to a document in the possession of the agency (s 4(1)).  The word “document” is defined in s 4(1) in very broad terms to include:

“(a)     any of, or any part of any of, the following things:

(i)        any paper or other material on which there is writing;

(ii)       a map, plan, drawing or photograph;

(iii)any paper or other material on which there are marks, figures, symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret them;

(iv)any article or material from which sounds, images or writings are capable of being reproduced with or without the aid of any other article or device;

(v)any article on which information has been stored or recorded, either mechanically or electronically;

(vi)      any other record of information; or

(b)      any copy, reproduction or duplicate of such…