The Administrative Appeals Tribunal's decision to uphold the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's refusal of a request by Telstra Corporation Limited for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, has been welcomed by the ACCC.
'Telstra had sought access to internal documents and material provided to the ACCC by several of competitors during the ACCC's investigation into Telstra's commercial churn service,' ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today. 'This investigation resulted in the ACCC instituting legal proceedings in the Federal Court, which are due to be heard in March.
'After the ACCC released several documents which were not sensitive, and the decision by Telstra to abandon its request for a significant number of documents, the AAT was asked to decide the status of eight documents. All contained information provided in confidence to the ACCC by carriage service providers who objected to any release.
'The AAT recognised that the ACCC relied upon the whole-hearted cooperation of the community in order to carry out its functions effectively. The AAT held that the release of information given to the ACCC in-confidence, without the consent of the person who supplied it, could reasonably be expected to have a substantial adverse effect on the ACCC's ability to gather information and carry out its regulatory duties in the future.
'The AAT found that a strong case had been made out that the release of this information would be contrary to the public interest. The fact that the ACCC is involved in legal proceedings against Telstra did not strengthen Telstra's argument that the public interest required the disclosure of the information.
'The ACCC is pleased that the AAT recognised the importance of its ability to obtain sensitive information from business and the public and to treat this information as confidential. The ACCC has always aimed to preserve the confidentiality of such information and give the community confidence that it can deal with the ACCC in a frank and open manner.
'The AAT decision is consistent with its 1992 judgement in Re Motor Trade Association of Australia & TPC, in which the Tribunal recognised the ACCC's need to obtain sensitive information on confidential basis. While pleased that the importance of this principle has again been recognised, the ACCC is disappointed that it was necessary for a hearing to be conducted before the AAT to re-affirm the validity of the ACCC's long standing approach to dealing with information provided in confidence by the public'.
