Freedom from Disclosure of Information

Eccleston and Department of Family Services and Aboriginal and Islander Affairs [1993] QICmr 2, para 71

McKinnon v Secretary, Department of Treasury [2006] HCA 45 (‘McKinnon’)

McKinnon , para 131

McKinnon , para 19

Refer for example to Chu Kheng Lim and Another v Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs and Another (1992) 176 CLR 1, and Plaintiff S157/2002 v Commonwealth (2003) 211 CLR 476. Refer to Caron Beaton-Wells ‘Judicial Review of Migration Decisions: Life After S157’ (2005) 33 FLR 141. The concerns raised in this article should not be taken to imply that the author believes the discretion here has been exercised more outrageously than discretions in other contexts. This is certainly not the case.

Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Report on the Freedom of Information Bill 1978 and Aspects of the Archives Act 1978 (1979) [66]; to like effect Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Report on the Operation and Administration of the Freedom of Information Legislation (1987) [155].

Sankey v Whitlam (1978) 142 CLR 1.

Ibid at 96

Ibid at 58

Sankey v Whitlam is not itself an FOI case, although its public interest ‘balancing test’ model has been followed in significant FOI cases, such as Re John Howard v The Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia (1985) 7 ALD 626

McKinnon , above n 2, para 125

Mill John Stuart , Considerations on Representative Government (1861) 42

eg Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (1992) 177 CLR 106; Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills (1992) 177 CLR 1; and Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1997) 189 CLR 520

(1992) 177 CLR 106 at 139

Ibid.

Ibid at 232

Ibid at 159

(1994) 124 ALR 1, 58; refer also to ACT v Cth (1992) 177 CLR 106 per Mason CJ , at 140 and McHugh J , at 231.

For a similar argument, see Bayne Peter ‘Recurring Themes in the Interpretation of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act’ (1996) 24 Federal Law Review 287 at 290.

Re Cleary and Department of the Treasury (1993) 18 AAR 83; Re Veale and Town of Bassendean, unreported Information Commissioner of Western Australia, 1994, Decision Ref D00494

See the Second Reading Speeches of NSW (Legislative Assembly Debates NSW 2 June 1988 p 1399) and Queensland (Parliamentary Debates, 5 December 1991, p 3849).

Bayne Peter ‘Recurring Themes in the Interpretation of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act’ (1996) 24 Federal Law Review 287 at 288; Bayne Peter ‘Freedom of Information and Democracy: A Return to the Basics?’ (1994) 1 Australian Journal of Administrative Law 107; ‘Freedom of Information and Political Free Speech’ in Campbell T Sadurski W , eds Freedom of Communication (1994) at 199; Cossins Anne ‘Revisiting Open Government: Recent Developments in Shifting the Boundaries of Government Secrecy Under Public Interest Immunity and Freedom of Information Law’ (1995) 23 Federal Law Review 226

Manly v Minister of Premier and Cabinet, unreported Supreme Court of Western Australia, 15 June 1995.

Although see Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1997) 189 CLR 520 where the High Court talks of an interest not only in disseminating information but in receiving it.