REFERENCE DOCUMENTS - RAL25/0004 (As Published)

                                                                                                               ATTACHMENT A

                                                           Statement of Reasons
                                                           RTI Application 22-239
                 _________________________________________________________________________

                 Evidence considered

                 In making my decision, I have considered the following evidence and other material:

                 •   the terms of your application;
                 •   contextual information provided by the relevant business group, the Environmental
                     Services Regulation division;
                 •   the provisions of the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) (RTI Act);
                 •   previous decisions of the Queensland Information Commissioner;
                 •   relevant Australian case law; and
                 •   the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) (HR Act). In accordance with section 58(1) of the HR
                     Act, I believe I have given proper consideration to, and acted compatibly with, the rights
                     set out in the HR Act when making my decision in accordance with the RTI Act. In
                     particular, I have had regard to the right to recognition and equality before the law and the
                     right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek and receive information.

                 Refused information

                 Nonexistent documents

                 Under the RTI Act, a person has the right to be given access to documents of an agency.
                 However, this right is subject to other provisions of the RTI Act, including grounds on which
                 an agency may refuse access to documents. 1

                 Sections 47(3)(e) and 52 of the RTI Act relevantly provide that access may be refused to
                 documents which:

                     •    do not exist; or
                     •    have been (or should be) in an agency’s possession but cannot be located.

                 A document is non-existent for the purposes of the RTI Act if there are reasonable grounds
                 for the agency to be satisfied that it does not exist, having regard to: -

                     •    the agency’s particular knowledge or experience with respect to the administrative
                          arrangements of government;
                     •    the agency’s structure;
                     •    the agency’s functions and responsibilities (particularly with respect to the legislation
                          for which it has administrative responsibility and other legal obligations that fall to it);
                     •    relevant administrative practices and procedures including but not exclusively
                          information management approaches; and
                     •    other factors reasonably inferred from information supplied by the applicant including
                          the nature and age of the requested documents and the nature of the government
                          activity to which the request relates. 2




                 1
                  Set out in section 47 of the RTI Act.
                 2
                  PDE and the University of Queensland [2009] (Unreported) QICmr (9 February 2009); Mewburn and Department of State
                 Development [2015] (Unreported) QICmr (21 April 2015) (“Mewburn”); and Exemplar Health and Sunshine Coast Hospital and
                 Health Service [2021] QICmr 27 (8 June 2021).

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Document Set ID: 23717062
Version: 0, Version Date: 01/01/1900