Disclosure of public servants’ names and contact details

Background

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is aware of agency concerns about disclosing public servants’ names and contact details in response to FOI requests or when requests are being processed.

We have prepared a discussion paper which explores these concerns and agency practices. The paper also examines the relevant guidance and decisions on disclosing these details, including the circumstances in which public servants’ names and contact details may be released or published in response to an FOI request, and when they may be exempt from disclosure.

View the discussion paper

View the submissions

Purpose of consultation

We are seeking comment from agencies, public servants and members of the community on these issues. The paper includes a series of questions to help you frame your response.

How to provide comments

Submissions can be made by:

The closing date for comments has been extended to Friday 9 August 2019.

We intend to make all submissions publicly available. Please indicate when making your submission if it contains confidential information you don’t want made public and why it should not be published. Requests for access to confidential comments will be determined in accordance with the FOI Act.

Although you may lodge submissions electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. To help us meet our accessibility obligations, we would appreciate you providing your submission in a web accessible format or, alternatively, in a format that will allow us to easily convert it to HTML code — for example Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format.

Privacy collection statement

The OAIC will only use the personal information it collects during this consultation for the purpose of considering the issues raised in the discussion paper.