59   Ministerial certificates

(1)  A certificate that is signed by the Minister and that states that a specified document is a restricted document by virtue of a specified provision of Part 1 of Schedule 1 shall, except for the purposes of Division 3 of Part 5, be taken to be conclusive evidence that the document is a restricted document by virtue of that provision.

(1A)  A certificate under this section must specify:

(a)  the reasons for the Minister’s decision that the document is a restricted document, and

(b)  the findings on any material questions of fact underlying those reasons, together with a reference to the sources of information on which those findings are based.

(1B)  A copy of a certificate under this section is to be given to an applicant seeking access to the document concerned. Such a copy is, for the purposes of section 28 (2) (e), sufficient notice to the applicant of the reasons for the refusal of access and the relevant findings underlying those reasons.

(2)  A certificate under this section ceases to have effect at the end of 2 years after it is signed by the Minister unless it is sooner withdrawn by the Minister.

(3)  Nothing in subsection (2) prevents the Minister from issuing a further certificate in respect of the same document.

(4)  Nothing in this section requires any matter to be included in a certificate if it is of such a nature that its inclusion in the certificate would cause the certificate to be an exempt document.