Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Freedom of Information Act 1982 - SECT 33

Document affecting personal privacy

33. Document affecting personal privacy



(1) A document is an exempt document if its disclosure under this Act would
involve the unreasonable disclosure of information relating to the personal
affairs of any person (including a deceased person).

(2) Subject to subsection (4), the provisions of subsection (1) do not have
effect in relation to a request by a person for access to a document by reason
only of the inclusion in the document of matter relating to that person.







(2A) An agency or Minister, in deciding whether the disclosure of a document
under this Act would involve the unreasonable disclosure of information
relating to the personal affairs of any person, must take into account, in
addition to any other matters, whether the disclosure of the information
would, or would be reasonably likely to, endanger the life or physical safety
of any person.

(3) Where a request by a person other than a person referred to in subsection
(2) is made to an agency or Minister for access to a document containing
information relating to the personal affairs of any person (including a
deceased person) and the agency or Minister decides to grant access to the
document, the agency or Minister (as the case may be) shall if practicable
notify the person who is the subject of that information (or in the case of a
deceased person, that person's next-of-kin) of the decision and of the right
of appeal against the decision provided by section 50(2)(e) to the person or,
in the case of a deceased person, to the person's next-of-kin.

(4) If-

   (a)  a request is made to an agency or Minister for access to a document of
        the agency, or an official document of the Minister, that contains
        health information concerning the person making the request; and

   (b)  the principal officer or the Minister, as the case may be, believes on
        reasonable grounds that the provision of the health information would
        pose a serious threat to the life or health of the person-

the principal officer or Minister must not give access to the document so far
as it contains that information and-

   (c)  the procedure set out in Division 3 of Part 5 of the
        Health Records Act 2001 applies as if the refusal of access were a
        refusal under section 26 of that Act; and

   (d)  the document is an exempt document.

(5) Where but for this subsection the principal officer of an agency to which
the provisions of subsection (4) may apply would not be a medical practitioner
registered under the Health Professions Registration Act 2005, the agency
shall appoint a medical practitioner registered under the
Health Professions Registration Act 2005 to be the principal officer of the
agency for the purposes of subsection (4).

(6) Nothing in this Act shall be taken to require an agency or Minister to
give information as to the existence or non-existence of a document of a kind
referred to in subsection (1) where information as to the existence or
non-existence of that document, if included in a document of an agency, would
cause the last-mentioned document to be an exempt document by virtue of this
section.

(7) Nothing in this section shall be construed so as to affect the procedures
for access to adoption records contained in the Adoption Act 1984.

(8) Nothing in this section shall be construed so as to affect the procedures
for access to information kept in a register maintained under Division 1 of
Part 7 of the Infertility Treatment Act 1995.







(9) In this section-

information relating to the personal affairs of any person includes
information-

   (a)  that identifies any person or discloses their address or location; or

   (b)  from which any person's identity, address or location can reasonably
        be determined.