Publications and resources provided by the
Office of the Information Commissioner

Guidelines

The 2010 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 are the most substantial changes to Australia's national freedom of information law since it commenced.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) will be progressively producing detailed guidance material to help Australian Government agencies understand what the main changes to the FOI Act are, and how they affect agency activities. The guidance produced by the OAIC will be available on our website: www.oaic.gov.au

FOI Guidelines

	Preface	Issued
Part 1	Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act 1982	Issued
Part 2	Scope of application of the FOI Act	Issued
Part 3	Requesting access to documents	Draft on govdex
Part 4	Charges for providing access	Issued
Part 5	Exemptions	Issued
Part 6	Conditional exemptions	Issued
Part 7	Amendment and annotation of personal records	Issued
Part 8	Decisions on FOI requests	Draft on govdex
Part 9	Internal review of decisions	Issued
Part 10	Information Commissioner review	Issued
Part 11	Complaints and investigations	Issued
Part 12	Vexatious applicant declarations	Issued
Part 13	Information Publication Scheme	Issued
Part 14	Reporting and compliance	issued
	Glossary	Issued

Other FOI guidance

• Notifying and Requesting Extensions of FOI Processing Time from the Information Commissioner
• Documents held by Government Contractors – Agency Obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (see also Privacy Obligations For Commonwealth Contracts)

Fact sheets

To help Australian Government agencies, the media and the public understand the work and role of the OAIC, as well as the recent reforms, we have started to produce simple, plain English fact sheets on important aspects of our work. The OAIC plans to make these fact sheets available in a number of languages in the near future. The fact sheets are available on our website.

FOI fact sheets

1. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - our functions

2. FOI - what's changed?

3. What information does the government hold? (forthcoming)

4. The Information Publication Scheme for Australian Government agencies

5. FOI - your personal information

6. FOI - how to apply

7. FOI - charges

8. FOI - exemptions

9. FOI - what you can expect from government agencies (forthcoming)

10. FOI and the Minister's office

11. FOI - your rights if someone seeks information about you or your business

12. FOI - your review rights

13. FOI - how to make a complaint

Papers

The OAIC will produce Issues Papers and Discussion Papers on emerging aspects of the OAIC's work.

OAIC's use of the 'govdex' site

The OAIC has established a 'workspace' on the Australian Government govdex secure website (hosted by the Department of Finance).

The OAIC is using its govdex 'workspace' to consult with Australian Government agencies. Our initial consultations have been around new guidelines for the Freedom of Information Act changes. Agencies have been invited to submit comments on each part of the draft guidelines and more recently on a discussion paper on the Information Publication Scheme that commences on 1 May 2011. We have also added some other information to the site including a reworked guide for agencies when they are providing their quarterly FOI statistical returns to the OAIC.

Each agency has been asked to nominate a primary FOI contact officer for uploading comments to the OAIC's govdex workspace. Any other agency staff member who has a work related reason can have view and download access. To have a staff member added for view access just email consultation@oaic.gov.au with Access to govdex in the subject line and the contact details including email address of the officers who require access.

 

Our contact details
GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601 www.oaic.gov.au Blog: www.oaic.govspace.gov.au Fax: + 61 2 9284 9666	GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 Telephone: 1300 363 992 Email: enquiries @oaic.gov.au