Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Freedom of Information Act 1982 - SECT 56

Inspection of exempt documents by Tribunal

56. Inspection of exempt documents by Tribunal



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(2) Subject to subsection (3) and to any order made by the Tribunal under
section 51(2) of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998, the
Tribunal shall do all things necessary to ensure that any document produced to
the Tribunal in proceedings under this Act that is claimed to be an exempt
document, or the contents of that document, is not disclosed to any person
other than a member of the Tribunal as constituted for the proceedings, or a
member of the staff of the Tribunal in the course of the performance of his
duties as a member of that staff, and to ensure the return of the document to
the defendant at the conclusion of the proceedings.

(3) The Tribunal may make any orders as it thinks fit having regard to the
nature of the proceedings, including where the applicant is represented by an
Australian lawyer (within the meaning of the Legal Profession Act 2004), an
order that the contents of a document produced to the Tribunal that is claimed
to be an exempt document be disclosed to that practitioner.









(4) In making an order under subsection (3), the Tribunal must be guided by
the principle that the contents of a document should not normally be disclosed
except in accordance with an order of the Tribunal under section 51(2) of the
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998.





(5) Where an application under section 50(2) relates to a document or part
thereof in relation to which disclosure has been refused on the grounds
specified in section 28, section 29A, or section 31, the Tribunal may, if it
regards it as appropriate to do so, announce its findings in terms which
neither confirm nor deny the existence of the document in question.



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