Power, jurisdiction, duty When questions of law arose in a privacy proceeding in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal), where I was the applicant, I asked the Tribunal to, under s 54(1) of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW) (CAT Act), refer the questions of law to the Supreme Court for the…
Inconsistency Section 25, PPIP Act Section 25 of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIP Act) says: “A public sector agency is not required to comply with section 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 or 19 if the agency is lawfully authorised or required not to comply with the principle concerned, or…
Principle of illegality The New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) has case law that needs wiping out because it stands in the way of persons (whose privacy was interfered with by public agencies in NSW) having their matters decided according to law. The Tribunal’s case law from the Appeal Panel’s decision in PN…
2020’s vision I hope 2020 brings a way of wiping out the two decades of case law ‘principles’, ‘rules’ and ‘misconstructions’ that the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) applies in privacy matters because if it does persons whose privacy was interfered with by a NSW public agency stand a chance of having…
Damages as compensation According to s 55(2)(a) of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIP Act) the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) has the jurisdiction to, “On reviewing the conduct of the public sector agency concerned”, make an order “requiring the public sector agency to pay to the applicant…
Discretion The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal dismissed a proceeding (a privacy matter) commenced by DQW, a client of the Department of Family and Community Services (now the Department of Communities and Justice), after it found that DQW had filed her review application before a pre-condition that gave the Tribunal jurisdiction existed.[1] (The Tribunal’s finding…
Of despots and sheep The High Court has said: It is “out of the question” and not a conceivable function of a judicial tribunal in a civilised country “for the tribunal to impair the obligation of a law or to attempt to make a new one … There may be legislatures which prefer to set…
Justice inaction The NSW Department of Justice, represented by its Office of General Counsel, appeared before the Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal), which it administers, because one of its divisions (Corrective Services) contravened privacy legislation. It undertook a half-arsed review of the conduct, made recommendations that weren’t implemented, then continued to engage in the contravening…
Mending fences I felt angry when I read the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s (the Tribunal’s) decision in DMW and DMX v NSW Rural Fire Service [2019] NSWCATAD 158 (9 August 2019). I felt angry because it seemed to me that the Tribunal construed and applied the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act…
Old sin Y v Director General, Department of Education & Training [2001] NSWADT 149 (12 September 2001) is about the privacy rights of an employee (Y) of the Department of Education (the Department). Y was aggrieved at the Department’s handling of defamatory personal information it had collected in a review of management practices that Y…