Page:AB (a pseudonym) v Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.pdf/16

Gageler CJ Gordon J Edelman J Steward J Gleeson J Jagot J Beech-Jones J

affected does not have to be given an opportunity to comment on every adverse piece of information, irrespective of its credibility, relevance or significance. However, "in the ordinary case where no problem of confidentiality arises an opportunity should be given to deal with adverse information that is credible, relevant and significant to the decision to be made". At least in some contexts, the affected person must be given the opportunity to respond to such information obtained from third parties even if it was not expressly relied on, or proposed to be relied on, by the decision-maker.

26 The nature of a decision-maker's powers and their capacity to affect a person's rights and interests not only bears upon the existence and informs the content of any duty of procedural fairness, but also informs the proper construction of statutory provisions that create analogous rights and obligations in that "all statutes are construed … against a background of common law notions of justice and fairness". IBAC is given broad and intrusive powers to gather evidentiary material during an investigation. It marshals that material in