ICON alert – edition 21

Message from FOI Commissioner Alice Linacre

Hello and welcome to our latest ICON alert.

I am delighted to have picked up the baton from Toni Pirani as the next Freedom of Information Commissioner – fortuitously starting the very week the OAIC marked International Access to Information Day.

The week provided a great opportunity to consider this year’s international theme for IAID: ‘Ensuring Access to Environmental Information in the Digital Age’, and its focus on advancing access to environmental information as a pillar of transparency, accountability, and sustainable development.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd brought an Australian perspective to discussions at this year’s UNESCO event. International insights will also continue to inform our work here at the OAIC.

As I step into the role of FOI Commissioner, I will continue to work to advance our FOI priorities to promote open government to better serve the Australian community; increase OAIC FOI regulatory and case management effectiveness; uplift agency capability in the exercise of FOI functions; and make FOI compliance easier; as well as our regulatory priorities.

I am mindful of the pressures on the system, including the increase in the number of FOI requests. I look forward to continuing our work to help uplift information access practices, address knowledge and practice issues, and make compliance easier, including through helpful tools such as the OAIC’s self-assessment tool and processing calculator.

We also have a new guidance update to share – the update to part 3 of the FOI Guidelines. You can find out more on that below.

International Access to Information Day 2025

International Access to Information Day 2025 – the tenth – had many highlights, including our FOI regulatory update webinar which we held on 30 September, and a range of dedicated events from OVIC, OIC Queensland and IPC New South Wales. If you attended the regulatory update webinar, we’d love your feedback, which you can share with us via this form

Commissioner Tydd represented the OAIC at UNESCO’s flagship event, speaking on panels on incorporating access to big data into access to information laws, environmental information for climate resilience, and open government for environmental information.

Another highlight was the release of the cross-jurisdictional Information Access Study, which measures the public’s awareness of the right to access government information, and their experiences and outcomes in exercising that right. Commissioners Tydd and Linacre also spoke to the national figures.

The OAIC also hosted the Association of Information Access Commissioners (AIAC), comprising Information Commissioners and Ombudsmen from Australia and New Zealand for their bi-annual meeting in Sydney from 2 to 3 October 2025. You can read the meeting communique here.

Thank you to all the FOI practitioners and agencies who helped to mark this special day, and look out for news on IAID 2026 next year.

Updates to the FOI Guidelines – Part 3

Updates have been made Part 3 of the FOI Guidelines (v 1.9), on processing and deciding FOI requests, following our consultation earlier this year, with an updated version published on 1 October.

Part 3 relates to all aspects of processing and deciding FOI requests, including the formal requirements for a valid FOI request, consultation and timeframes for notifying a decision.

The OAIC thanks agencies and civil society for taking the time to make submissions following our external consultation in May and June 2025. The final version takes into account and incorporates feedback from the submissions we received.

Part 3 has been substantially revised. Content has been reorganised to better reflect the flow of FOI decision-making, text has been updated to improve readability and ensure consistent use of terms, legislation has been updated, and references to recent IC review, ART and Federal Court decisions have been added. Additional links to OAIC resources have also been included to aid decision-making.

Content updates include (but are not limited to):

• clarification that an FOI request must be made by a ‘person’
• encouragement to use online FOI request forms to streamline processing
• the requirement to publish FOI instruments authorising staff to make decisions under s 23 (i.e., instruments of delegation)
• clarification that the request consultation process in s 24AB must be followed if an FOI request does not comply with s 15(2)(b) (identification of documents)
• clarification of the FOI processing period if affected by a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, with reference to the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Kumar & Ors ([2017] HCA 11
• clarification that an agreement to extend the time to process an FOI request under s 15AA will not be valid if the request is deemed to have been refused
• guidance on the information needed to satisfy s 26(1)(b) (name and designation of the person giving the decision), and
• clarification that an agency/minister is still able to process an FOI request and produce a statement of reasons if the request is deemed to have been refused, and how the statement of reasons will be used in an IC review.

Other updates include increased guidance on: taking reasonable steps to assist an applicant make a valid FOI request; consulting third parties (including a State under s 26A - documents affecting Commonwealth–State relations); refusing a request under s 24A (documents do not exist or cannot be found); deleting irrelevant and exempt matter; refusing to confirm or deny the existence of a document under s 25 and 26(2); and refusing a request for a practical refusal reason.

Next steps

Agencies and ministers’ offices should familiarise themselves with v 1.9 of Part 3 and ensure their processes and procedures are consistent with the updated guidance.

All template letters/notices should be reviewed and updated to reflect the reflect the amended Guidelines (please note that paragraph numbers in v 1.9 of Part 3 are different than in v 1.8). We have published a summary of the revisions that v 1.9 made to the previous version of Part 3 on our Summary of version changes to s93A guidelines webpage.

FOI statistics

FOI statistics due soon

A reminder that FOI statistics for Quarter 1 2025-26 (1 July to 30 September) are due to be entered into the FOIstats database by Tuesday 21 October 2025.

For further guidance on entering your FOI statistics into the database, see our FOIstats guide. If you still have questions after checking the FOIstats guide, please contact us via our enquiry form.

For agencies administering other agency and ministers’ returns, the first screen when you log on lists all those agencies and ministers. If you are meant to administer returns for agencies and ministers that are not listed there, please update us via our enquiry form.

Now is a good time to carefully consider how your agency will prepare answers to the questions in the annual return at the end of the year (due 31 July). Ensure that your agency keeps sufficient information to accurately complete the return at the end of the year.

It may be helpful to download a PDF of the FOIstats guide, which contains the quarterly and annual return forms on pages 17-22, from a hyperlink at the start of the FOIstats guide.

Trouble getting through with your FOI stats?

For password resets, we recommend selecting ‘Forgotten your Password?’ from the portal login page. You will need your username to reset your password – this is not an email address.

A password reset email will be sent to your agency’s nominated FOI mailbox. If you cannot remember your username or need to update your nominated email address, please submit an enquiry via the OAIC Web Form.

Still have trouble getting through with your FOI stats? To access the FOI Stats Portal, agencies will need to have their IP address whitelisted. We encourage you to check your access to the FOI Stats Portal at least 1 month ahead of each quarterly return submission date.

If you receive a “Hmm…can’t reach this page” message, or your connection to https://foistats.oaic.gov.au times out, then your IP address may need to be whitelisted. We recommend the following steps:

1. Speak with your IT department. Your IT department will be able to confirm your agency’s IP address, which we need in order to enable your access to our portal.
2. Lodge an enquiry with the OAIC. Once you have your agency’s IP address, submit an enquiry to the OAIC via OAIC Web Form. Please include your agency name and contact information along with your IP address details.
3. Allow 3-4 weeks for processing. Once your details and your agency’s IP address are registered with us, the OAIC’s technology team will reach out to confirm your access to the portal. Please respond within 2-3 days so that we can close the support ticket.