Freedom of Information

Our Directorate operates in compliance with the principles of the Freedom of Information Act 1989 . 

The Act:

• provides for general access to documents of agencies and official documents of Ministers, subject to certain exemptions and exceptions;
• provides for the amendment of records about the personal affairs of an applicant that the applicant believes to be incorrect, incomplete, out of date or misleading;
• establishes a system to review certain decisions at various levels; and
• requires the publication of information on the functions and official documents of an agency, and that particular documents be available for inspection and sale.

FOI Requests

Those seeking information are encouraged to seek access by contacting the Directorate before resorting to the more formal FOI procedure. A request under the FOI Act should be made in writing (by letter or by using the FOI application form requesting documents under the FOI Act.

The request should:

• identify the document(s) sought
• provide as much information as possible about the document/s requested to assist in processing the request
• supply a contact telephone number and address.

All FOI requests should be directed to:

The FOI Coordinator
Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate
Macarthur House
12 Wattle Street
LYNEHAM ACT 2602

Exemptions

The FOI Act sets out certain types of documents which may not be accessible (called exempt documents). Exemptions are generally used to protect essential public interests, confidential matters or the private or business affairs of others.

If the Department decides not to grant access to the documents requested, they will provide written reasons for the decision and advise the applicant of their rights of appeal.

Costs

There is no application fee for FOI requests. However processing charges may be applied.