Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982 - SECT 58

             (1)  Subject to this section, in proceedings under this Part, the Tribunal has power, in addition to any other power, to review any decision that has been made by an agency or Minister in respect of the request and to decide any matter in relation to the request that, under this Act, could have been or could be decided by an agency or Minister, and any decision of the Tribunal under this section has the same effect as a decision of the agency or Minister.

             (2)  Where, in proceedings under this Act, it is established that a document is an exempt document, the Tribunal does not have power to decide that access to the document, so far as it contains exempt matter, is to be granted.

             (6)  The powers of the Tribunal under this section extend to matters relating to charges payable under this Act in relation to a request.

             (7)  Where:

                     (a)  application is or has been made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for review of a decision refusing to grant a person access to a document in accordance with a request; and

                     (b)  the agency to which or the Minister to whom the request was made:

                              (i)  has given to the applicant a notice under this Act of the decision, being a notice that does not include a statement (in whatever terms expressed) to the effect that access to the document is being refused for the reason that, by virtue of the operation of subsection 12(2) or of that subsection as modified by regulations in pursuance of subsection 12(3), the applicant is not entitled to access to that document; or

                             (ii)  informs or has informed the Tribunal, either before or in the course of the proceeding for the review of the decision, that the agency or the Minister, as the case requires, does not intend, or does not any longer intend, to refuse access to the document for the reason referred to in subparagraph (i);

then, for the purposes of the review by the Tribunal of that decision, this Act has effect as if subsection 12(2), or that subsection as so modified, as the case requires, had not been enacted.