McCabe v Workers Compensation Commission

Administrative Decisions Tribunal

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

McCabe v Workers Compensation Commission [2012] NSWADT 30

Hearing dates:

14 December 2011

Decision date:

01 March 2012

Jurisdiction:

General Division

Before:

Judicial Member N Isenberg

Decision:

1. The decision under review is set aside.

2. The orders sought by the applicant were not discussed at the hearing. I direct the parties file draft Short Minutes of Order within 14 days of the date of this decision.

Category:

Principal judgment

Parties:

Applicant: David McCabe
Respondent: Workers Compensation Commission

Representation:

Applicant: In person
Respondent: Crown Solicitor

File Number(s):

113218

DECISION

Background

1. By letter dated 26 May 2011, pursuant to s. 41 of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act), the applicant sought access to documents held by the Workers C ompensation Commission (WCC) in the following terms :

(a) all documents including memoranda, file notes, emails and correspondence, which led to the production of the Table referred above;

(b)   any reports, correspondence or memoranda in respect of the provision by you of the Table to Mr Thompson, either before, at the time or after its provision;

(c)   any documents produced within the Workers Compensation Commission in respect of the provision of the Table to Mr Thompson from September 2009 to date;

(d)   any further communications between the Workers Compensation Commission and/or your office and any other body or person regarding the manner in which I have conducted legal practice re workers compensation commission matters;

(e)   any file regarding myself.

1. In response, on 21 June 2011, the respondent's Manager, Executive Services, Geoffrey Cramp, provided the applicant with a number of documents falling within the scope of paragraph (d) of the application. With respect to the information falling within paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (e) of the application, Mr Cramp responded that the information was not held by the respondent: s. 58(1)(b) of the GIPA Act.

1. On 8 August 2011, the applicant filed an application seeking review of the respondent's decision. The applicant disputed the respondent's decision that it held no documents falling within paragraphs (a), (b) and (c). He asserted that a spreadsheet ('the Table'), to which access had been provided by the respondent in response to the application, could only have been compiled following some administrative direction within the respondent's organisation and that that compilation of the Table required research, access to files and to the information set out in the Table. On that basis, the applicant submitted that the respondent must have documents falling within categories (a), (b) or (c) of his application. The applicant attached to his application documents to which he had been given access by the WorkCover Authority (WCA) pursuant to an application he had made to the WCA under the GIPA Act. He asserted that the documents indicated that the Table had been provided to the WCA by the WCC and that "it could not have been compiled in a vacuum".

1. At the first planning meeting, on 22 September 2011, at the applicant's request, the…