NSW Crown Solicitor and Local Council Documented to Collaborate on Submissions, Billing Unsuspecting Public, 21.01.2023
Port Stephens Council and its solicitors of Lindsay Taylor Lawyers have submitted a ledger to the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) as evidence in support of a Costs Application against Telina Webb of NSW Freedom of Information.
The Costs Application concerns the substantive hearing of an application for administrative review with NCAT, a hearing which saw the Office of the NSW Crown Solicitor (CSO) as Second Respondent. Ms Kiri Sue Mattes acted as the CSO's representative.
The CSO had joined the case as objector to the release of information held by Council, but which it had claimed numerous overriding public interests against disclosure as the CSO was the author of the information.
The documentation authored by the CSO were a number of training manuals and materials associated with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, GIPA. The CSO maintained it had only ever made the documents available to agency personnel, admitting it had done so based on trust, with no undertaking of confidentiality. This was in contradiction to Council's in-house solicitor Stephanie Eileen Posniak's assertions before the Tribunal's Mr Montgomery at the commencement of the proceedings, where Ms Posniak claimed staff undertakings of confidentiality had actually been made.
Ms Webb sought access to records on the basis they constituted policy and procedure information, given they were indicated to be an agency road-map towards preventing the release of government information, and as such in her view were open access mandated for release.
The CSO’s Kiri Sue Mattes and Council had successfully argued a number of public interest clauses to prevent the release of the information including ‘undermining competitive neutrality’, ‘diminish competitive value’, and ‘prejudice a legitimate business.’
Those arguments were not supported by any evidence, just the unsupported submissions and sworn affidavit of Ms Mattes.
What is clear after the hearing was fought and lost by Ms Webb who was unrepresented, is that numerous personnel from Port Stephens Council including its in-house solicitors, several of Lindsay Taylor Lawyer solicitors, and the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Kiri Mattes did actually collude during the proceedings, aligning submissions and checking each other’s documentation, adding the time spent on doing so to the ledger of accounts to an oblivious Ms Webb.
The ledgers have been provided to the Tribunal and Ms Webb awaits its decision, where the Council has claimed it incurred a total of $21,914.85, but seeks a lump sum concessional payment of $10,000.00.
The ledger, which shows costs attributable to the CSO, but which were billed to Ms Webb a total of (12) twelve times, will be published shortly.
Contact:
CSO:- Kiri Mattes, (02) 9474 9538
Lindsay Taylor Lawyers:- Carlo Zoppo, 0410 451 736- Jennifer Chenhall, (02) 8235 9712 or 0407 469 528- Megan Hawley, (02) 8235 9703 or 0433 766 644- Lachlan Penninkilampi, (02) 8235 9719
Port Stephens Council:- Tony Wickham, (02) 4988 0187 or 0408 497 649- Lisa Marshall, (02) 4988 0377 or 0408 978 884- Stephanie Pozniak, (02) 4988 0530 or 0427 108 744
The Costs Application concerns the substantive hearing of an application for administrative review with NCAT, a hearing which saw the Office of the NSW Crown Solicitor (CSO) as Second Respondent. Ms Kiri Sue Mattes acted as the CSO's representative.
The CSO had joined the case as objector to the release of information held by Council, but which it had claimed numerous overriding public interests against disclosure as the CSO was the author of the information.
The documentation authored by the CSO were a number of training manuals and materials associated with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, GIPA. The CSO maintained it had only ever made the documents available to agency personnel, admitting it had done so based on trust, with no undertaking of confidentiality. This was in contradiction to Council's in-house solicitor Stephanie Eileen Posniak's assertions before the Tribunal's Mr Montgomery at the commencement of the proceedings, where Ms Posniak claimed staff undertakings of confidentiality had actually been made.
Ms Webb sought access to records on the basis they constituted policy and procedure information, given they were indicated to be an agency road-map towards preventing the release of government information, and as such in her view were open access mandated for release.
The CSO’s Kiri Sue Mattes and Council had successfully argued a number of public interest clauses to prevent the release of the information including ‘undermining competitive neutrality’, ‘diminish competitive value’, and ‘prejudice a legitimate business.’
Those arguments were not supported by any evidence, just the unsupported submissions and sworn affidavit of Ms Mattes.
What is clear after the hearing was fought and lost by Ms Webb who was unrepresented, is that numerous personnel from Port Stephens Council including its in-house solicitors, several of Lindsay Taylor Lawyer solicitors, and the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Kiri Mattes did actually collude during the proceedings, aligning submissions and checking each other’s documentation, adding the time spent on doing so to the ledger of accounts to an oblivious Ms Webb.
The ledgers have been provided to the Tribunal and Ms Webb awaits its decision, where the Council has claimed it incurred a total of $21,914.85, but seeks a lump sum concessional payment of $10,000.00.
The ledger, which shows costs attributable to the CSO, but which were billed to Ms Webb a total of (12) twelve times, will be published shortly.
Contact:
CSO:- Kiri Mattes, (02) 9474 9538
Lindsay Taylor Lawyers:- Carlo Zoppo, 0410 451 736- Jennifer Chenhall, (02) 8235 9712 or 0407 469 528- Megan Hawley, (02) 8235 9703 or 0433 766 644- Lachlan Penninkilampi, (02) 8235 9719
Port Stephens Council:- Tony Wickham, (02) 4988 0187 or 0408 497 649- Lisa Marshall, (02) 4988 0377 or 0408 978 884- Stephanie Pozniak, (02) 4988 0530 or 0427 108 744