McGuirk v University of New South Wales (GD)

The case involved an appeal against a decision of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Appeals Tribunal. The appellant, McGuirk, sought leave to extend an appeal to the merits of the Tribunal's decision regarding the disclosure of a protected report, which was initially denied by the Tribunal. The matter was heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

The legal issues before the court were whether the appeal should be allowed to proceed to the merits and if the Tribunal's decision was correct in denying McGuirk's request to have her name removed from the protected report. The court had to consider whether the Tribunal had made an error of law or if there were procedural unfairness in the Tribunal's decision.

The court found that the Tribunal had made an error of law in denying McGuirk's request for her name to be redacted from the protected report. The court held that the Tribunal had failed to consider the statutory requirement to remove personal identifiers in certain circumstances. The court also found that there was no procedural unfairness in the Tribunal's decision. The court granted leave for the appeal to extend to the merits and set aside the Tribunal's decision in relation to the redaction of McGuirk's name. The court ordered that access be given to Part B, Divisions 2 and 3 of the document with McGuirk's name deleted.

The court affirmed the Tribunal's decision in relation to Part A and Part B, Division 1 of the document. The court ordered that if either party wished to apply for costs, they should do so within 21 days of the date of this decision. Any submissions in reply should be made within a further 21 days. Any application for costs will be determined by the Appeal Panel on the papers.