Freedom of Information Act 1982
Encyclopedia
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI) is Australian Commonwealth Freedom of Information
legislation which gives members of the public rights of access to official documents of the Government of the Commonwealth and of its agencies.
The government agency or Minister who receives the application must endeavor to inform the applicant that their request has been received within 14 working days, and must also notify the applicant of their decision in relation to the request within 30 working days (Freedom of Information Act 1982).
of governance is fairly closed to public scrutiny (Stubbs 2008).
Between the 1960s and 1980s a number of enquiries were made, looking into the transparency of the Australian government and public services which lead to New Industry Law (NAL) reforms (Stubbs 2008). One of the NAL initiatives was Freedom of Information and is considered a "landmark in the development of Australian democracy" (Stubbs 2008).
Freedom of information
Freedom of information refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology . Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e...
legislation which gives members of the public rights of access to official documents of the Government of the Commonwealth and of its agencies.
Outline of the Act
Members of the public have certain rights of access. These include the right to access documents about the operation of government departments and documents that are in the possession of government Ministers or agencies (Freedom of Information Act 1982). Certain documents are exempt from this, including (but not limited to) documents that could damage national security, defence or international relations, or any document that could damage Commonwealth-State relations (Freedom of Information Act 1982).Requesting Information
The request for access to a document must be in writing, and contain a reasonable amount of information about the requested document in order for it to be easier to locate (Freedom of Information Act 1982). The application process can also incur charges (Freedom of Information Act 1982).The government agency or Minister who receives the application must endeavor to inform the applicant that their request has been received within 14 working days, and must also notify the applicant of their decision in relation to the request within 30 working days (Freedom of Information Act 1982).
History of the FOI
Before the FOI act of 1982 the various governments of Australia had no obligation to release information to the public, because the traditional Westminster systemWestminster System
The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
of governance is fairly closed to public scrutiny (Stubbs 2008).
Between the 1960s and 1980s a number of enquiries were made, looking into the transparency of the Australian government and public services which lead to New Industry Law (NAL) reforms (Stubbs 2008). One of the NAL initiatives was Freedom of Information and is considered a "landmark in the development of Australian democracy" (Stubbs 2008).