The Age

by Jason Dowling July 29, 2010

“NOTES taken in a meeting between Planning Minister Justin Madden and the developer behind the controversial $260 million Hotel Windsor redevelopment are being withheld by the government - months after the minister appeared to indicate they would be released.

Mr Madden was asked in May to release the notes when he appeared before a state parliamentary committee. At the time he said he expected the notes to be ''fed into the system''.

When The Age subsequently asked the government for a copy of the notes, it was told to submit a freedom-of-information request.

The Department of Planning has now formally refused that request. Defending the refusal, a department spokesman said that ''given it [the meeting] was a general discussion around the intention to submit a formal application, no file notes were recorded.

''A personal note was made by one of the officers. However, this note only had personal meaning to that officer and was not used in any decision-making process. These kinds of personal notes do not meet the definition of a document of an agency under the FOI Act.''......”

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/meeting-notes-on-hotel-windsor-plans-withheld-20100728-10w6w.html