21.
GAGELER J.
Introduction
58 The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) ("the FOI Act") confers rights to obtain, on request, access to documents in the possession of "agencies" as well as official documents in the possession of Ministers of State of the Commonwealth. Departments of State of the Commonwealth and "prescribed authorities" are agencies. Most bodies established by Acts of the Commonwealth Parliament are prescribed authorities, as are most persons holding offices established by Acts of the Commonwealth Parliament.
59 Courts (but not judges) are deemed to be prescribed authorities. Specified industrial bodies such as the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (but not their members) are similarly deemed to be prescribed authorities. The Official Secretary to the Governor-General, by virtue of holding an office established by the Governor-General Act 1974 (Cth), is also a prescribed authority. The Governor-General is not.
60 The FOI Act is expressed (in ss 5, 6 and 6A respectively) to have no application to a request for access to a document in the possession of a court, a specified industrial body or the Official Secretary "unless the document relates to matters of an administrative nature".
61 The question of statutory construction on which this appeal turns is: when is a document a document that "relates to matters of an administrative nature"? Legislative history
62 In answering that question, "a page of history is worth a volume of logic"[1].
63 Sections 5 and 6 were in the FOI Act as originally enacted in 1982. They were inserted into the Bill for the FOI Act by amendment in the Senate in 1981[2]. The purpose of the amendment was to give effect to recommendations made by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs in 1979[3].
- ↑ Cf New York Trust Co v Eisner 256 US 345 at 349 (1921).
- ↑ Australia, Senate, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 7 May 1981 at 1767–1776.
- ↑ Australia, Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Report by the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on the Freedom of Information Bill 1978, and aspects of the Archives Bill 1978, (1979) at 158 [12.29]–[12.30], 159–160 [12.33]–[12.34].
