McGuirk v Director General, The Cabinet Office

CITATION:	McGuirk v Director General, The Cabinet Office [2007] NSWADT 9
DIVISION:	General Division
PARTIES:	APPLICANT Gerard Michael McGuirk RESPONDENT Director General, The Cabinet Office
FILE NUMBER:	063029
HEARING DATES:	On the papers
SUBMISSIONS CLOSED:	9 June 2006
DATE OF DECISION:	10 January 2007
BEFORE:	Montgomery S - Judicial Member
CATCHWORDS:	access to documents - cabinet documents - access to documents - internal working documents - access to documents - legal professional privilege - Freedom of Information Act - access to documents - cabinet documents - Freedom of Information Act - access to documents - internal working documents - Freedom of Information Act - access to documents - legal professional privilege
MATTER FOR DECISION:	Principal matter
LEGISLATION CITED:	Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 Freedom of Information Act 1989
CASES CITED:	BY v Director General, Attorney General's Department [2002] NSWADT 79 Cianfrano v Director General, Department of Commerce and anor [2005] NSWADT 282 Cianfrano v Director General, New South Wales Treasury [2005] NSWADT 7 Herald & Weekly Times v Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority [2004] VCAT 924 Mangopolah Pastoral Co Pty Ltd v Great Southern Energy [1999] NSWADT 93 National Parks Association of New South Wales Inc v Department of Lands and Anor [2005] NSWADT 124 Neary -v- The Treasurer, New South Wales [2002] NSWADT 261 University of New South Wales v Gerard Michael McGuirk [2006] NSWSC 1362
REPRESENTATION:	APPLICANT In person RESPONDENT M Dalla-Pozza, Solicitor
ORDERS:	The matter is to be set down for further directions on Monday, 5 February 2007 at 9.30a.m.

1 Mr McGuirk applied to the Premier's Department under the Freedom of Information Act 1989 (“the FOI Act”) for access to documents relating to a proposal to permit the concurrent holding of the offices of the Ombudsman and Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. His application was transferred to The Cabinet Office because that office is responsible for formulating and developing legislative proposals within the Premier's administration and, accordingly, was the agency likely to hold the documents and the agency whose functions most closely relate to the documents sought.

2 The Cabinet Office’s Deputy Director-General, Legal and Justice Policy, Ms Leigh Sanderson determined the application. She identified 26 documents that she considered as falling within the scope of the application. Mr McGuirk had previously been given access to four of those documents. Ms Sanderson prepared a schedule of the remaining documents and determined to refuse access to each of the documents listed in the schedule. Mr McGuirk applied for an internal review of Ms Sanderson’s determination and The Cabinet Office’s Director-General, Mr Roger Wilkins, undertook that review. Mr Wilkins also determined to refuse access to the documents.

3 Mr McGuirk has applied to this Tribunal for an external review of the determination to refuse his request for access to documents. The parties agreed to the matter being determined on the papers without the need for a hearing of the matter.

4 The Cabinet Office relies on a Statement of Evidence by Ms Sanderson that was filed…