Review of charges under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 Report to the Attorney-General



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title: oaic logo - description: oaic logo

Review of charges under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982


Report to the Attorney-General

February 2012title: oaic ribbon image - description: decorative cover page image

Prof. John McMillan

Australian Information Commissioner

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) was established on 1 November 2010 by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010.


All OAIC publications can be made available in a range of accessible formats for people with disabilities. If you require assistance, please contact the OAIC.
ISBN 978-1-877079-95-5


Creative Commons
With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, this report is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en).


This publication should be attributed as: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Review of charges under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 – Report to the Attorney-General ­– February 2012.
Enquiries regarding the licence and any use of this report are welcome.
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

GPO Box 2999

CANBERRA ACT 2601

Tel: 02 9284 9800

TTY: 1800 620 241 (no voice calls)

Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au


Contents

Foreword 6

About this review 7

Discussion paper 7

Consultation 8

Executive summary and recommendations 9

Background to this inquiry 9

Main issues raised in inquiry 9

Guiding principles to underpin a new charges framework 10

Recommendations for a new charges framework 11

Explanation of the proposed changes 12



Part 1: The Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the existing charges regime 14

Overview of the FOI Act 14

Avenues for accessing information within the FOI framework 15

Current charging framework applicable to FOI access requests 19

Fees and charges collected under the FOI Act 24

Part 2: The role of fees and charges under the FOI Act 26

Background 26

Changes in 2010 27

Views on the role of fees and charges 27

The role of fees and charges: Guiding principles 30

Part 3: Summary of issues and proposals considered 32

Overview 32

General concerns with the current charges framework 32

Application fees 33

Scale of charges 38

Imposition of charges 45

Exceptions 47

Collection of charges 48

Correction, reduction or waiver 49

Other issues 51



Part 4: Administrative release of information 54

Introduction 54

Defining administrative access 55

Benefits of administrative access 56

Elements of an administrative access scheme 58

Issues of potential concern 60



Part 5: A new approach to charges – recommendations for reform 63

Overview 63

Facilitating administrative release of information 64

A new scale of charges – processing 67

A new scale of charges – providing access to a document 70

Managing large and complex requests 72

Reduction and waiver of FOI charges 75

Fees for internal review and IC review 77

Indexation 82

Other issues 82



Glossary 84

Appendix A: Consultation questions as set out in Part 6 of the Discussion Paper 86

The role of fees and charges in the FOI Act 86

Application fees 86

Scale of charges 86

Imposition of charges 87

Exceptions 88

Collection of charges 88

Correction, reduction or waiver of charges 88

Other issues 88

Appendix C: Consultations 90

Appendix D: Summary of main legislative provisions for charges 91

Australia 92

Overseas 97

Foreword


The capacity of an agency or minister to impose an access charge under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 is always at the centre of debate about the operation of the Act.

FOI requests can impose a substantial administrative burden on agencies and divert resources from other functions. Access charges are a way of controlling and managing demand for documents and defraying some of the cost of FOI to government.

On the other hand, FOI charges can discourage or inhibit the public from exercising the legally enforceable right of access to government information granted by the FOI Act. The objective of the Act to make government open and engaged with the public will be hampered if it is too expensive or cumbersome for people to make FOI requests.

Balancing those competing interests has always been important, yet difficult. Major reforms to the FOI charges framework were introduced in 2010 to strike a new balance between public access and the administrative demands on government. The Australian Government, recognising the evolving significance of this issue, foreshadowed at the time that I would be asked to commence a review of the FOI charges framework within a year of the reforms commencing on 1 November 2010.

This report concludes that further change to FOI legislation is needed. A new charges framework could enable the FOI Act to work better in providing public access to government information without impairing the other responsibilities of agencies and ministers.

The reform proposals in this report arose from a valuable consultation exercise conducted by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner with Australian Government agencies, advisory committees, members of the public and community organisations. I thank them for their valuable assistance to my office in this review.

The prevailing theme in all consultation for this report was that the FOI Act is a vital statute that must be supported by government and made to work in an optimal manner. My recommendations for reform are framed in that spirit. I commend them to the Australian Government for close consideration.

Prof. John McMillan

Australian Information Commissioner

10 February 2012



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