MacRae and Australian Capital Territory (Compensation)

The applicant, MacRae, sought confidentiality orders from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to prevent the publication of a decision and the removal of case files from the Tribunal's database. The respondent, the Australian Capital Territory, opposed this application. The dispute arose after the AAT had already made and published its decision concerning MacRae's compensation claim.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it should exercise its power to grant suppression or non-publication orders, despite the decision already being published and the applicant's delay in making the request. This required the Tribunal to consider the principle of open justice, the public interest in the accessibility of court decisions, and the circumstances under which exceptions to this principle might be warranted. The applicant contended that publication would cause reputational harm, affect future employment prospects, and expose sensitive medical information, arguing that these concerns outweighed the principle of open justice.

Senior Member Furnell SM reasoned that while the Tribunal retained the power to make such orders, the applicant had failed to establish exceptional circumstances justifying a departure from the principle of open justice. The Tribunal noted that the applicant's concerns about reputational harm and potential misuse of information were speculative and not supported by specific evidence of how particular information might be exploited. Furthermore, considerations of embarrassment or personal sensitivity were generally insufficient grounds for suppression orders, and applicants in compensation proceedings were expected to accept the inevitability of disclosure. The fact that the decision had been public for some time also weighed against granting the requested orders.

Ultimately, the Tribunal refused the applicant's request for a suppression or non-publication order regarding its decision and the reasons for it, and also refused the application for the removal of files from the database.