55Disclosure of draft reports

55 Disclosure of draft reports

Disclosure to persons who may be adversely affected by a report (1) Subject to subsections (4) to (8), the Inspector must make reasonable efforts to give any person or government agency who may be adversely affected by material in a draft report if the material were disclosed to another person, so much of the draft report as contains that material, for the purposes of: (a) allowing the person or government agency to make submissions to the Inspector about the material; or (b) giving the person or government agency advance notice of the likely form of the final report. Disclosure to State or Territory in which a surface transport aspect of a transport security matter occurs (2) Subject to subsections (4) to (8), the Minister must disclose any part of a draft report that relates to a surface transport aspect of a transport security matter to the Transport Minister of the State or Territory in which that aspect of the matter occurred. Disclosure to other persons (3) Subject to subsections (4) to (8), if the Inspector believes it is appropriate, the Inspector may give all or part of a draft report to any person or government agency for the purposes of: (a) allowing the person or government agency to make submissions to the Inspector about the draft report; or (b) giving the person or government agency advance notice of the likely form of the final report. Draft reports containing protected information (4) The Inspector must not give a person or government agency a copy of any part of a draft report that contains protected information given to the Inspector by a government agency, without the prior agreement of that agency, if the disclosure of the information may: (a) compromise an investigation that is being conducted by the agency; or (b) have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of the agency. Draft reports containing OBR information or CVR information (5) The Inspector may only give a part of a draft report that contains OBR information or CVR information to a person or government agency under paragraph (1)(a) or (3)(a) if it is necessary to do so to allow the person or government agency to understand the conclusions made in the draft. (6) The Inspector may only give a part of a draft report that contains OBR information or CVR information to a person or government agency under paragraph (1)(b) or (3)(b) if the information is already publicly available. Draft reports containing restricted information given to the Inspector by the ATSB (7) The Inspector must not, without the prior agreement of the Chief Commissioner of the ATSB, give any part of a draft report that contains restricted information given to the Inspector by the ATSB to a person or government agency, if the disclosure may: (a) compromise an investigation that is being conducted by the ATSB; or (b) have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of the ATSB. Draft reports relating to surface transport aspects of a matter (8) The Inspector must not give any part of a draft report that relates to a surface transport aspect of a transport security matter to a person or government agency without the agreement of the Transport Minister of the State or Territory in which that aspect of the matter occurred.