Section 89L — Freedom of Information Act 1982: Vexatious applicants—grounds for declaration

(1) The Information Commissioner may make a vexatious applicant declaration in relation to a person only if the Information Commissioner is satisfied of any of the following: (a) that: (i) the person has repeatedly engaged in access actions; and (ii) the repeated engagement involves an abuse of the process for the access action; (b) a particular access action in which the person engages involves, or would involve, an abuse of the process for that access action; (c) a particular access action in which the person engages would be manifestly unreasonable. (2) A person engages in an access action if the person does any of the following: (a) makes a request; (b) makes an application under section 48; (c) makes an application for internal review; (d) makes an IC review application. (3) The Information Commissioner must not make a declaration in relation to a person without giving the person an opportunity to make written or oral submissions. (4) In this section: abuse of the process for an access action includes, but is not limited to, the following: (a) harassing or intimidating an individual or an employee of an agency; (b) unreasonably interfering with the operations of an agency; (c) seeking to use the Act for the purpose of circumventing restrictions on access to a document (or documents) imposed by a court.