Salmon v Corrective Services NSW

The case of Salmon v Corrective Services NSW involved the applicant seeking access to government information held by the Respondent. The dispute centred on an email response from Marc Riviere to the Manager, Information Access & Privacy dated around 13 December 2013. The applicant argued that this information should be disclosed under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, while the Respondent contended that releasing the information would expose a person to a risk of harm or of serious harassment or serious intimidation.

The legal issues before the court were whether the release of the email would expose a person to a risk of harm or of serious harassment or serious intimidation, as claimed by the Respondent, and whether the application for a referral under section 112 of the Act should be granted. The court had to weigh the public interest in transparency and access to information against the potential harm to individuals.

The court determined that the Respondent's arguments did not sufficiently establish that releasing the email would expose a person to a risk of harm or of serious harassment or serious intimidation. Consequently, the court found that the decision to withhold the information was not justified. The court set aside the decision under review and ordered that the email response from Marc Riviere is to be released. The application for a referral was refused, and the court prohibited the Respondent and any other person from publishing certain parts of its reasons identified as “not for publication”.