Australia, July 23 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on June 23:

1. The applicant is an English teacher at Camden Haven High School (CHHS) where he has worked for 24 years.

2. In 2021, two faculties at CHHS: the English faculty, and the Human Society and its Environment faculty, were subject to a "culture review" which was conducted by consultants Altius (the Culture Review). While various members of staff including the applicant made contributions to the Culture Review, such as participating in focus groups, the resulting report has not been provided to them, nor to anyone at the school other than the principal.

3. In 2022, a School Development Review (SDR) was conducted of the school. Unlike the Culture Review, this is a process of the respondent's department which is conducted by reference to a policy and procedure encapsulated in a "School Development Review Team Leader Manual" (SDR Manual). To undertake the SDR, a review team spent a week at the school (1-5 August 2022) conducting interviews and undertaking observations.

4. On 7 August 2022, an Exit Presentation (in the form of a PowerPoint presentation) (Exit Presentation) was delivered to the staff of CHHS at a whole school staff meeting (which the applicant did not attend) outlining aspects of the SDR. During that presentation, staff were apparently informed that the final report would be shared only with the school's principal.

5. A report was then prepared (SDR Report) which was endorsed by the region's Executive Director, School Performance, on 25 August 2022. The SDR Report was shared with the school Principal. It was not made available to other teachers at the school.

6. On 6 March 2024, Mr Collins made an application pursuant to the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (GIPA Act) for access to the findings of the Culture Review, and for the complete findings of the SDR.

7. On 11 March 2024, the respondent decided to grant "view only" access to the Exit Presentation, and to refuse to release the remainder of the information, i.e. the findings of the Culture Review and the SDR Report, on the basis that there was an "overriding public interest against disclosure".

8. On 3 June 2024, the applicant applied to the NSW Information Commissioner (IC) for external review. By a recommendation made on 3 September 2024, the IC indicated that she was not satisfied that the Department had identified all public interest considerations in favour of disclosure. She also indicated that she was not satisfied that the Department had demonstrated that its reliance on items 1(d), (e), (f), (g) and (h) of the Table to s 14 of the GIPA Act, referring to public interest considerations against disclosure, was reasonably based. The IC recommended that the respondent make a new decision by way of internal review.

9. An internal review decision was made by Daniel French, the Department's Executive Director, School Excellence, on 27 September 2024. By that decision, the Department determined that there was an overriding public interest against the disclosure of the information.

10. On 20 November 2024, the applicant sought review by the Tribunal of the decision to refuse him access to the information he sought.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1978b825bb1b11b8fba11c03)

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