Case: Bienstein and Family Court of Australia [2006] AATA 385 (2006) 43 AAR 34
Outcome: cited
The applicant made a request to the respondent, a court created under Ch III of the Constitution , for certain documents. The respondent declined to grant that request. The applicant's request for internal review of the decision was granted, but the decision was affirmed after internal review. The applicant then sought review of the respondent's decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ("the Tribunal"). The Tribunal's decision was to affirm the decision under review. The decision and reasons for decision, which are designated as Bienstein and Family Court of Australia [2006] AATA 385 (2006) 43 AAR 34 , were given on 10 April 2006. The applicant appealed to this Court from that decision of the Tribunal. By s 44(1) of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth) ("the AAT Act "), a party to a proceeding before the Tribunal may appeal to this Court from a decision of the Tribunal in that proceeding, but the right of appeal is limited to a question of law. 3 The object of the FOI Act is set out clearly in s 3: (1) The object of this Act is to extend as far as possible the right of the Australian community to access to information in the possession of the Government of the Commonwealth by: (a) making available to the public information about the operations of departments and public authorities and, in particular, ensuring that rules and practices affecting members of the public in their dealings with departments and public authorities are readily available to persons affected by those rules and practices; and (b) creating a general right of access to information in documentary form in the possession of Ministers, departments and public authorities, limited only by exceptions and exemptions necessary for the protection of essential public interests and the private and business affairs of persons in respect of whom information is collected and held by departments and public authorities; and (c) creating a right to bring about the amendment of records containing personal information that is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading. (2) It is the intention of the Parliament that the provisions of this Act shall be interpreted so as to further the object set out in subsection (1) and that any discretions conferred by this Act shall be exercised as far as possible so as to facilitate and promote, promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost, the disclosure of information. 4 Section 5 provides: For the purposes of this Act: (a) a court shall be deemed to be a prescribed authority; (b) the holder of a judicial office or other office pertaining to a court in his or her capacity as the holder of that office, being an office established by the legislation establishing the court, shall be deemed not to be a prescribed authority and shall not be included in a Department; and (c) a registry or other office of a court, and the staff of such a registry or other office when acting in a capacity as members of that staff, shall be taken as a part of the court; but this Act does not apply to any request for access to a document of the court unless the document relates to matters of an administrative nature.