Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Information Privacy Act 2000 - SECT 42

Inspection of exempt documents by Tribunal

42. Inspection of exempt documents by Tribunal



(1) Subject to subsection (2) and to any order made by the Tribunal under
section 51(2) of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998, the
Tribunal must do all things necessary to ensure that-

   (a)  any document produced to the Tribunal in proceedings under this Act
        that is claimed to be an exempt document of a kind referred to in
        section 28(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, or the contents
        of that document, is not disclosed to any person other than-

   (i)  a member of the Tribunal as constituted for the proceedings; or

   (ii) a member of the staff of the Tribunal in the course of the performance
        of his or her duties as a member of that staff; and

   (b)  the document is returned to the respondent at the conclusion of the
        proceedings.

(2) The Tribunal may make such orders as it thinks necessary having regard to
the nature of the proceedings.

(3) If the applicant is represented by an Australian legal practitioner
(within the meaning of the Legal Profession Act 2004), orders under subsection
(2) may include 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 (2), the Tribunal must be guided by
the principle that the contents of a document that is claimed to be an exempt
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) If a complaint under section 39 relates to a document or part of a
document in relation to which disclosure has been refused on the grounds
specified in section 28 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, 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.