On 16 December 2021, an incident occurred at the Hillcrest Primary School in Northern Tasmania in which a jumping castle and inflatable ‘Zorb’ balls became airborne in high winds, resulting in the deaths of six children and injuries to a further three. The Hillcrest Primary School is operated by the Department for Education, Children and Young People, known at the time of the incident as the Department of Education (the Department).
Mr Tim Bullard is the Secretary of the Department and made an application for assessed disclosure under the Right to Information Act 2009 (the Act) to the Department of Justice on 19 May 2022. He sought information regarding the ongoing WorkSafe investigation into the incident pursuant to the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. On 28 July 2022, a decision was released by the Department of Justice which determined that the majority of the information sought was exempt from release under s30 of the Act due to risk of prejudice to the ongoing investigation. Mr Bullard sought external review of this decision.
The Ombudsman determined that the Department of Justice’s claim for exemption of the relevant information pursuant to s30 was valid and upheld the decision.
Tim Bullard and Department of Justice ( Dec 2022) (PDF File, 160.1 KB)