APS Commission Home page
> Foundations of Governance
> Management and use of Government information > Freedom of information > Next: Privacy Act
‹ Previous page
Last updated: August 2008
Management and use of Government information
Freedom of Information Act
skip further information boxInformation supplied by:
For more information:
Agency heads are responsible for the proper application of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 in their agencies.
The Act gives members of the public an enforceable right of access to documents held by most Australian Government agencies, limited only by exceptions and exemptions necessary to protect essential public interests and the private and business affairs of persons about whom agencies collect and hold information (section 11). Agencies must state the types of information they keep in their annual report (section 8). The Act does not apply to a small number of agencies, such as the intelligence agencies (section 7 and Schedule 2).
When a member of the public requests access to information under the Act, the agency must, within 30 days of receiving the request, identify and retrieve all relevant material and make a decision on whether to provide access as sought (section 15(5)). Generally, an agency is obliged to release a document unless that document is exempt under the Act (section 11). The various exemptions are in Part IV and the Schedules of the Act. An Agency is required to take reasonable steps to assist a person wishing to make a request, or who has made a request which does not comply with the requirements of the Act (section 15(3)).
Decisions under the Act are subject to internal review and external merits review in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (sections 54 and 55).
The Act also provides an individual with a right to apply to an agency to have personal information about him or her that is incorrect, out of date or misleading amended or annotated (section 48). This corresponds to an equivalent right under principles 6 and 7 of the Information Privacy Principles in section 14 of the Privacy Act 1988. However, unlike the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act contains no formal mechanism for such access,
The Act also requires Australian Government agencies to publish information about their operations and powers affecting members of the public as well as policies for making decisions and recommendations affecting the public (section 9).
