McGuirk v Independent Commission Against Corruption

McGuirk applied for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal from a decision of a judge who had set aside a decision of the Appeal Panel of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. The Appeal Panel had reversed the decision of a Tribunal member. The dispute concerned the construction of section 9 of the *Freedom of Information Act 1989* (NSW).

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether leave to appeal should be granted. This involved determining whether there was an important question of law or public interest involved, or whether the Appeal Panel's decision was so aberrant as to warrant appellate intervention, and whether there was a substantial argument to be made on appeal. A secondary issue related to the judge's award of costs against McGuirk.

Giles JA and Hodgson JA considered that while the construction of section 9 of the *Freedom of Information Act* was an important question, the Appeal Panel's decision was aberrant and there was no substantial argument to be made on appeal. Consequently, leave to appeal was refused on this ground. Regarding the costs order, the Court found that the prospects of demonstrating that the judge's decision to award costs was so unreasonable as to be outside the proper exercise of discretion were slight, and therefore leave to appeal on this ground was also refused.

The application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs.