Freedom of information

Access to information

There are four ways to access OPC’s information:

  1. Accessing information published under the Information Publication Scheme on OPC’s website;
  2. Requesting information informally via administrative access;
  3. For records over 20 years of age: making a formal request to the National Archives of Australia via the Archives Act 1983 (Archives Act); or
  4. For records under 20 years of age: making a formal request to OPC via the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Information Publication Scheme

OPC is required to publish certain information in accordance with section 8 of the FOI Act. This is available from the Information Publication Scheme page.

Administrative access

You can request the following information without the need to submit a formal FOI application:

  • Assent copies of Acts of Parliament;
  • Assent certificates;
  • Personal information we hold about you.

To request a document, or to make an enquiry about another OPC document, email FOI@opc.gov.au.

Applications under the Archives Act 

Subsection 3(7) of the Archives Act defines the open access period of Commonwealth records as being 21 years after the creation year; for example the open access period for a record created in 2006 commences on 1 January 2027. Requests for access to records in the open access period must be made to the National Archives of Australia.

Freedom of information

The FOI Act gives any person the right to:

  • access copies of documents (except exempt documents) we hold;
  • ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading;
  • seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to see any document that we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

Please note that the access provisions of the FOI Act do not apply to records in the open access period (s 12(1)(a)). 

How to make an FOI request

Before submitting an FOI request, you should check to see if what you are seeking is already available on the FOI disclosure log, or if it’s been published under the Information Publication Scheme.

Your FOI request must:

  • be in writing;
  • state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act;
  • provide information about the document(s) you wish to access so that we can process your request;
  • provide an address for reply.

You can send your request:

  • By post:

           FOI Officer

           Locked Bag 30, Kingston ACT 2604

By email: foi@opc.gov.au

If you are making an FOI request on behalf of another person, you need to provide a specific, written authority from that person to send copies of documents to you or to allow you to inspect copies of documents containing information about the other person.

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Officer on (02) 6120 1400 or by email at foi@opc.gov.au.

Fees and charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.

What you can expect from us

We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request.  We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

If you disagree with our decision

When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.

You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

  • if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access;
  • if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Internal review

You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision, set aside and substitute a new decision, or set aside and remit the matter to us for reconsideration. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available from the OAIC. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information

For more information about making a request to access information, please contact the FOI Officer on (02) 6120 1400 or by email at foi@opc.gov.au.