Freedom of information

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act) gives members of the public a general right of access to documents of an agency and official documents of a Minister, other than exempt documents or parts of documents. Exemptions may relate to national security, material obtained in confidence, Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the Act. The Act allows individuals access to their personal records held by Government and enables them to correct any personal information that is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading. The Act also requires an agency to publish information on its operations under the Information Publication Scheme and a disclosure log of information that has been accessed under freedom of information (FOI) requests. A potential FOI applicant may find the information they are seeking is already available in those publications.

Receiving access

Once the FOI request has been completed by Treasury, any available documents will be forwarded to the applicant. If the requested documents or parts of them are within an exemption specified in the Act, Treasury will provide reasons for the decision to exempt. The FOI Act provides that a disclosure log of information accessed under FOI requests must be published, except for personal, business or certain other information set out in section 11C of the Act. Treasury publishes its responses to FOI requests on the Treasury website at the same time as providing the response to the applicant. Documents released under the FOI Act are generally made available on the website after 4 pm on Fridays (other than public holidays).

Disclosure Log

Once the FOI request has been provided to the applicant, the request will be made available on the Treasury website's Disclosure Log.

How to apply for access

To make an FOI request the applicant should:

• apply online: Application Form
• apply in writing: Freedom of Information, The Treasury, Langton Crescent, PARKES ACT 2600

Describe as clearly as possible the information being sought. Include any reference numbers or articles that may assist in identifying specific material and where possible include a date range.