Review of charges under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 Report to the Attorney-General
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Prof. John McMillan Australian Information Commissioner
- Contents Foreword 6 About this review 7
- Part 1: The Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the existing charges regime 14
- Part 2: The role of fees and charges under the FOI Act 26
- Part 4: Administrative release of information 54
- Glossary 84 Appendix A: Consultation questions as set out in Part 6 of the Discussion Paper 86
- Appendix C: Consultations 90 Appendix D: Summary of main legislative provisions for charges 91
Review of charges under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 Report to the Attorney-General February 2012 
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
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
Background 26 Changes in 2010 27 Views on the role of fees and charges 27 The role of fees and charges: Guiding principles 30
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
Australia 92 Overseas 97
ForewordThe 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 Yüklə 0,67 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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