Peter Administrative Law Letter Writing Assignment
- Country :
Australia
Fact Scenario
Your client, Peter, applied to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on April 30 for access to copies of documents, cables or correspondence from her to the UK and US governments in relation to the April 11 arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the subsequent US application for his extradition on US Espionage Act charges. Peter is a member of the ‘Free Julian Assange Committee’.
On July 30, in a brief letter, the Minister refused Peter’s request, on three grounds:
(1) the request would substantially and unreasonably interfere with the performance of the Minister's functions, as per s 24 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act);
(2) the request would damage the international relations of the Commonwealth, as per s 33(a)(iii) of the FOI Act;
(3) the requested documents would contain or relate to deliberative processes of the Minister, as per s 47C(1) of the FOI Act.
In the letter, the Minister gave no further reasons for her decision. One week later, the Minister told the House of Representatives that she had rejected Peter’s request because he was a socialist who was trying to undermine the US-Australia alliance, which was critical to the country’s security.
Instructions: Explore
a) The arguments – both merits and legal – you propose to make; and
b) The best avenues for those arguments
