Webb v iCare NSW
[2023] NSWCATAD 316
At a glance
Source factsCourt
NCAT Administrative and Equal Opportunity
Decision date
2022-09-26
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (10 paragraphs)
Background
- Telina Webb, the Applicant in these proceedings, applied to the Respondent, Insurance and Care NSW (iCare), for access to information under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (GIPA Act), about membership and meetings of the NSW Right to Information and Privacy Practitioner's Network (Practitioner's Network).
- The Respondent located ten documents which answered Ms Webb's application, but declined to release any material to her on the basis that the information she had requested was not "government information held by the agency" as defined in GIPA Act, s 4 and further described in GIPA Act, Sch 4, cl 12. Consistent with that conclusion, the Respondent determined the Application under the GIPA Act, s 58(1)(b).
- A week after refusing to release any material, the Chairperson of the Practitioner's Network, who is an employee of the Respondent, purporting to act only in the Chairperson's role, released seven documents to Ms Webb. The provision of that material was outside of the GIPA Act.
- Orders were made at hearing that the name of the Chairperson not be published for the reasons set out in the Tribunal's procedural ruling issued to the parties in November 2022.
- The remaining material identified by the Respondent, but not released to Ms Webb on any basis, comprised documents described in submissions as spreadsheets with the title "Consolidated List of Members" for various time periods.
- Pursuant to the GIPA Act, s 104(1) and the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW), Sch 3, cl 9(4)(a) the Information Commissioner appeared at the hearing in this application and made submissions to assist the Tribunal with respect to the determination of the correct and preferrable decision of this matter under Administrative Decisions Review Act 1997 (NSW), s 63. The Information Commissioner's submissions were primarily directed to assisting the Tribunal's deliberation on the central question of construction and interpretation of the term "government information held by the agency".