Freedom of information

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Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) members of the public have a right to request access to our documents and official documents of a minister.

Request access

You can request access under the FOI Act to documents we and our ministers hold, including your personal information.

The FOI Act also gives you the right to apply for correction of your personal information that is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

Ministers’ official documents

A minister’s official document must relate to the affairs of the department.

Treasury does not hold or publish:

party political documents
constituent information or
information about a minister’s personal affairs.

How to apply for document access

You can request access by completing our FOI request form

Required information

Your request should identify the document or documents you are seeking.

You can include any reference numbers or articles that may help identify specific material and where possible, include a date range.

Your request may not be valid under the FOI Act if:

it is too vague or
you ask questions without seeking documents.

Large requests

Under the FOI Act departments and ministers do not have to process FOI requests that are unreasonably large.

If your request is too large, we must consult with you to see if you can make a smaller and reasonably manageable request.

It is best to avoid requests that have long date ranges, or concern wide or general topics.

FOI contact

The FOI team can help you frame your request. This includes advising you on whether another agency or minister is more likely to hold the documents you are looking for.

You can contact us by:

emailing FOI@treasury.gov.au
calling 02 6263 2800

Request process

Acknowledgement

We must acknowledge your request within 14 calendar days from the date of your request.

If you haven’t received an acknowledgement in this time, email us.

General timing

We must give you a decision on your request within 30 calendar days from the date of your request.

Timing – third party consultation

If we must consult with affected third parties the processing time extends by another 30 calendar days.

We must obtain their views about the release of their information to you.

An affected third parties can include:

individuals
businesses
foreign governments or
state or territory governments.

Timing suspension

The processing time is suspended if:

we need to consult you about the size of your request or
if you wish to dispute the sent estimated charges notice to process your request.

Decision

A decision letter will tell you whether:

each requested document is released to you in full or in part or
access to a document was refused because it is exempt from disclosure.

You will receive the granted documents with the decision letter, unless there are any outstanding charges.

See charges

Irrelevant or exempt information

Information can be deleted in part or in full if it is found to be irrelevant or exempt.

Irrelevant information may include topics which do not fall within the scope of your request.

Exempt information may include, for example:

matters of national security
Cabinet documents
sensitive personal or business information or
deliberative material.

Visit the OAIC website to view what you can’t access under FOI

Charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.

If you are applying for documents that only contain your personal information there is no charge.

Processing charges may apply to requests for any other documents.

A charge is imposed based on:

how many documents you request and
how many affected third parties we must consult.

If there is a charge, we will send you a written estimate.

Waived or reduced charges

You can ask for a charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest.

We may ask for evidence of your financial circumstances if you are applying on grounds of financial hardship.

We must give you a decision whether to waive the charge in full or in part, or to impose the charge in full, within 30 calendar days after the date of your charge contention.

Visit the OAIC website to view how charges are calculated

Review rights

You have the right of a review of FOI decisions made by Treasury. This includes a decision to:

refuse your request if it remains too large to process after we consulted you to make the request more manageable
impose a charge in full or in part
refuse you access to a document because it has deletions (called ‘redactions’) of exempt or irrelevant material.

Review types

There are 3 different FOI decision reviews:

Treasury internal review

If you are not happy with our FOI decisions, you can request an internal review.

One of our deputy secretaries will conduct the internal review.

Treasury cannot review a decision by a minister.

See FOI contact to make your request

Information Commissioner review

You can request a review by the Information Commissioner, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

This applies to decisions of both the Treasury and ministers.

OAIC prefers that agency internal review decisions take place before applying for an Information Commissioner review.

Visit the OAIC website to apply for an Information Commissioner review

Administrative Review Tribunal review

You can only apply for a review by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) if you are not happy with the Information Commissioner review decision.

Visit the ART website to apply for a tribunal review

Disclosure log

Under the FOI Act, Treasury is required to publish documents released in response to FOI requests in a disclosure log. Personal, business or other information that would be unreasonable to publish are exempt.

Treasury publishes its responses to FOI requests on this website at the same time we respond to the applicant. This is generally after 4 pm on Fridays (other than public holidays).

See our Freedom of Information disclosure log

Last updated

16 September 2025

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