Karen Kline has been fighting to uncover the secrets behind how Australia Day honours are selected for the past six years.
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The Queensland nurse will be forced to wait a little longer after the High Court on Wednesday reserved judgment in her application to gain access to the documents.
In 2007, the Order of Australia council rejected a nomination suggested by Ms Kline.
She in turn attempted to access information relating to that decision and later used freedom of information laws to request a number of documents, including ''working manuals, policy guidelines and criteria'' used by the Council to make its decision.
Both requests were refused by the Governor-General's office, which used its exemption from the FoI Act to suppress all documents other than those relating to matters "of an administrative nature".
Ms Kline challenged the decision, arguing the guidelines for award assessment were administrative in nature.
But she was rejected by both Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the full bench of the Federal Court.
Her lawyer, Ron Merkel, QC, argued the requested documents were not excluded by the FOI Act.
Mr Merkel said the documents could be characterised as relating to matters of an administrative nature because they related to tasks performed within the Office of the Official Secretary, and covered documents that did not disclose the decision making process of the Council.
But Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Justin Gleeson, SC, argued the requested documents did not involve solely the management or administration of the office.
Correction: This article has been corrected to say Justin argued the requested documents did not involve solely the management or administration of the office.