9 Because the Commissioner is not the defendant in the proceedings, technically this is a subpoena addressed to a third party to the litigation. However, we cannot close our eyes to the realities of the situation.
10 The Commissioner, by notice of motion filed 14 March 2008, moved to set aside the subpoena on the grounds that it failed to disclose a legitimate forensic purpose and/or was oppressive: public interest immunity was also claimed. When the subpoena was amended to reduce the period for which documents were sought, the claim of oppression was withdrawn.
11 The motion came on before Judge McLoughlin on a number of occasions between 14 May 2008 and 13 March 2009.
12 Affidavits of Detective Inspector Minehan and Detective Inspector Newton were filed and read before his Honour which referred to a number of documents for which privilege or immunity from production was claimed.
13 On 20 May 2008, the primary judge ruled that there was a forensic purpose in the subpoena and stood over the motion for further work to be done by the parties.
14 It is a little difficult to identify the full reasons for that determination. This is because in his reasons of 20 May 2008 the learned judge merely says that this decision was made for the reason he had discussed with counsel during submissions the previous week.
15 Appellant's counsel before us produced a schedule of references to the transcript which pick up the references to the discussion. Respondent's counsel did not object to this summary. I will return to this matter.
16 After hearing further evidence and submissions of counsel, the primary judge gave what he later called a provisional judgment on other matters on 28 November 2008. He then heard additional submissions on 27 January 2009 and gave his final judgment on 13 March 2009.
17 According to the primary judge's reasons for judgment of 28 November 2008, the documents in respect of which he was to rule consisted of eight folders comprising an exhibit "DPM 1" to Detective Inspector Minehan's affidavit allegedly brought into existence for the purposes of assessing, registering and investigating a complaint against a police officer pursuant to Part 8A of the Police Act 1990. Some of the documents were photocopies of documents brought into existence otherwise than for the purposes of Part 8A investigations, but the copies themselves were brought into existence for that purpose. These copies were called 'second generation documents' by counsel for the appellant. Whilst this is not an exact term, it will suffice as a tag when referring to such documents.
18 There were an additional seven folders marked " DPNN 1" to "DPNN 7" exhibited to Detective Inspector Newton's affidavit of similar nature.
19 The learned primary judge ruled that the documents referred to in the subpoena must be produced to him so that he could consider questions of privilege and immunity.
20 The debate continued on other aspects of the motion.
21 There was a dispute before the primary judge as to whether he had any discretion to permit production even though a document was, technically speaking, privileged. His Honour ruled on 28 November 2008 that he did not have any such discretion. That ruling is not a matter for this appeal.
22 A key question was whether the second generation documents could be the subject of statutory privilege.
23 The term "statutory privilege" is used in these reasons to describe the right given to persons who have been served with subpoenas to decline to produce the documents referred to therein if certain facts exist. I will return to how statutory privilege is alleged to apply in due course.
24 The primary judge ruled in November 2008 that the second generation documents were not brought into existence for the purpose of a Part 8A investigation and were not the subject of statutory privilege. He considered that most of the other documents did come within statutory privilege, but was concerned that these were admixed with other documents. He stood the matter over for further consideration.
25 In his final judgment the judge ruled on whether certain documents, did or did not constitute a "complaint" under s 127 of the Police Act. He ruled that the documents identified as C, H, I, J and K were not documents constituting a complaint.
26 The judge then reviewed his decision about the second generation documents in the light of further submissions. He considered at length the decision of the High Court in Commissioner of Australian Federal Police v Propend Finance Pty Ltd [1997] HCA 3; 188 CLR 501, but distinguished it on the facts.
27 The primary judge ruled that one could not equate the rights of immunity under s 170 of the Police Act with legal professional privilege.
28 The judge ruled that investigator's reports were covered by statutory privilege as was correspondence created during investigations. However, minutes of meetings relating to departmental investigation did not. He ruled that print outs of non-privileged material did not become privileged.
29 As to material in relation to integrity testing, the ruling was that such of the documents that were brought into existence for the purposes of investigation and complaint were privileged, but many the documents involved with integrity testing were not privileged.
30 The judge identified many of the documents noting which side of the privilege line they fell and stood over for further consideration a final list.
31 The formal order of 13 May 2009 was, in essence, that part of the motion be dismissed, but that the Commissioner be excused from producing certain documents (Order 3) and that further consideration of the motion be stayed until after consideration of any appeal against Order 3.
32 On this appeal, the Commissioner challenges three decisions of the primary judge, viz: