Council rapped over knuckles for breaching GIPA Act

The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) has found Central Coast Council failed to meet its obligations when resident Kevin Brooks tried to get some information from it.

After months of being ignored by Council, Brooks complained to the IPC which has ruled the complaint was justified in full.

The IPC recommended more training for Council staff after looking into six different issues arising from the one complaint.

It also suggested Council needed to update its policies for dealing with communication from the public.

On one of the issues, the IPC said that as Council had acknowledged their mistake, it was anticipated that they would use it as a learning opportunity to update relevant policy and further train staff.

The IPC noted that Council apologised for the issue where it had closed off service requests without contacting the resident.

A timeline showed the months it took Brooks to try to get Council to respond to a Government Information Public Access (GIPA) request for information about a particular type of council contract.

Brooks was standing as a candidate in the council election in September and in May he first requested the information which he was hoping to use in his election campaign.

Brooks lodged a complaint with the IPC after Council refused to process his GIPA application, and declined to respond to any of his emails or complaints.

He lodged his GIPA application, for procurement and tender information in relation to community engagement contracts, on May 10, 2024.

Over the next five months or so, repeated emails asking for the GIPA application to be processed were not answered.

Under the Act applications should be processed within 28 days.

Brooks then lodged a formal complaint on Council’s online complaints portal, but the complaint was closed and marked “completed” despite nobody responding to it. 

The same thing happened two more times.

A further email about the closure of these complaints to the Director responsible for the complaints system was also ignored.

Even a request from IPC for information was late in being delivered.

The IPC contacted Council on Brooks’ behalf and obtained an undertaking from Council that it would respond to the GIPA application by September 27, which was too late for Brooks as the elections were held earlier in September.

Council finally responded on October 31, long after the council elections were finalised.

The information was no longer of value to Brooks.  

He said he lodged the complaint to the IPC in the hope that Council would at least face some accountability for its disgraceful conduct.

Brooks believed the weight of evidence pointed to wilful obstruction of the GIPA Act by Council.

The IPC said while Council had breached the Act, and the complaint was ruled “justified in full”, he had no information to show that Council may have been deliberately obstructive.