How freedom of information requests work in Australia

Every Australian business deals with government information at some point: a grant application file, a licence decision, correspondence with a regulator, tender records. What you rarely get told is that you do not have to rely on the agency's goodwill to see those records. Australia's freedom of information (FOI) laws give you a legally enforceable right to request access to documents held by government agencies, and the system for exercising that right has clear moving parts: who you ask, what you can ask for, how long the agency has to answer, what it can charge, and what happens when it says no.

This guide explains how the system operates from the moment you identify the right agency to the review options if access is refused. It also covers the parallel privacy pathway, which is often quicker and cheaper when the information you want is about you personally.

Who does what in the FOI system

FOI is a three-sided system, and understanding each side explains most of how it behaves.

The requester (you): any person can make a request. You do not need to be an Australian citizen, and you do not need to justify yourself. Under s 11(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act), your right of access is not affected by the reasons you give, or by the agency's belief about your motives.
The agency or minister: holds the documents and must decide your request within a statutory deadline. Commonwealth agencies must also publish an information publication scheme under Part II of the FOI Act and keep a disclosure log of documents they have released.
The Information Commissioner: for Commonwealth requests, the Information Commissioner reviews agency decisions, investigates complaints and can compel the production of documents.
The Administrative Review Tribunal (ART): hears merits review of Information Commissioner decisions. The ART replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in October 2024 under the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth).
State regulators: each state runs its own oversight body, such as the Information and Privacy Commission in New South Wales, the Office of the Information Commissioner in Queensland and the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner.

Which law applies to your request

FOI is not one law; it is a patchwork, and your rights depend on which level of government holds the documents.

Commonwealth agencies (the ATO, ASIC, the ACCC, Services Australia) and ministers: the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth).
New South Wales public sector agencies and local councils: the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (the GIPA Act).
Queensland: the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld), with the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) covering personal information.
Victoria: the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic).
Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory: each have their own FOI or right to information legislation.

FOI only binds the body that actually holds the documents. A request sent to the wrong agency goes nowhere, so spend ten minutes confirming which body runs the program, licence or decision you are asking about. If two agencies are involved, file parallel requests rather than assuming one will pass your request on.

What you can ask for, and what stays off limits

FOI covers documents in an agency's possession, a term read widely. It takes in emails and attachments, briefings, reports, file notes, meeting minutes, contracts, tender and procurement records, policies, datasets, photographs and recordings.

Exemptions come in two tiers, and the distinction matters. Some documents are exempt outright: material affecting national security, defence or international relations (s 33 of the FOI Act), Cabinet documents (s 34), communications subject to legal professional privilege (s 42), material obtained in confidence (s 45), and trade secrets or commercially valuable information (s 47). If a document falls into one of these categories, access can be refused without any balancing exercise.

Other documents are only conditionally exempt. Documents revealing the deliberative processes behind a decision (s 47C) and documents whose disclosure would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information (s 47F) can still be released. The agency must give access unless disclosure would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest (s 11A of the FOI Act). This is where most FOI disputes are fought: the agency has to identify a real harm, not just assert confidentiality.

For a business the practical picture is straightforward. Documents about your own affairs are usually obtainable. A competitor's commercial-in-confidence material and other people's personal information will typically be redacted. Agencies can release edited copies with the exempt material removed (s 22 of the FOI Act), so a partial refusal is often the realistic best outcome.

Making a request that starts the clock

A valid request must be in writing, state that it is an application under the Act, describe the documents well enough for the agency to identify them, and give contact details (s 15 of the FOI Act). There is no prescribed form; most agencies provide an online form or a dedicated email address.

The clock starts when the agency receives a valid request. Under s 15(5)(b) of the FOI Act, a Commonwealth agency must notify you of its decision within 30 days. If it does not, it is taken to have refused the request (s 15AC), which unlocks the review options below and, under the charges regulations, means no charge is payable. New South Wales gives agencies 20 working days under s 57 of the GIPA Act; Queensland and Victoria set comparable statutory deadlines, and every jurisdiction allows extensions, most commonly for consultation with third parties.

The single biggest factor in how fast and cheap the process runs is scope. A request that names a decision, a date range and the documents you expect to exist, for example "the briefing prepared for the delegate who decided our grant application in March", gives the agency something to find. "All documents about our grant since 2015" invites the refusal ground discussed below. Before requesting anything, check the agency's disclosure log and publications: if the document is already public, you can skip the process entirely.

Charges: what you pay, and what you do not

Commonwealth FOI has no application fee. Under the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 (Cth), agencies can charge an hourly rate for the time spent searching for and retrieving documents, set at $15 per hour in the schedule, plus a charge for decision-making time. The amounts are modest by default, and three carve-outs matter far more.

No charge for your own personal information: Regulation 7(1) provides that there is no charge for a request for access to a document that contains your personal information.
No charge for late decisions: If the agency misses the 30-day deadline, the charge falls away (reg 7(2)). This is a genuine incentive for agencies to decide on time.
A written assessment you can challenge: Under s 29 of the FOI Act, an agency that wants to charge must give you written notice of its preliminary assessment, and you have 30 days to agree, dispute it, or ask for a reduction or waiver on hardship or public interest grounds.

New South Wales runs a different model. The GIPA Act imposes an application fee and processing charges, but an agency cannot impose a processing charge for the first 20 hours on an application for your own personal information (s 67), an internal review costs $40 (s 85), and agencies can waive or reduce fees where appropriate.

Refusals, and the three ways to push back

When an agency refuses access, it must tell you why, identifying the exemption or other ground relied on (s 26 of the FOI Act). A refusal is rarely the end of the road. Commonwealth FOI builds in three escalating options, and the same pattern exists in most states.

Internal review: ask the agency to reconsider. A different officer must make a fresh decision within 30 days of receiving the application (s 54C of the FOI Act).
Information Commissioner review: the Information Commissioner can investigate, require the production of documents and substitute a new decision (Part VII of the FOI Act). This is the main merits review tier and is run on the papers.
Tribunal review: a decision of the Information Commissioner can be taken to the ART, which stands in the agency's shoes and can decide the matter afresh (Part VIIA of the FOI Act). Judicial review in the Federal Court remains available for legal error, but it is a narrow ground.

Two practical points. First, a deemed refusal after 30 days of silence counts as a decision you can review; you do not have to wait for a formal refusal letter. Second, if the problem is process rather than substance, such as chronic delay or poor handling, you can complain to the Information Commissioner separately from any review.

The privacy route to your own information

FOI is not the only pathway, and for your own personal information it is often not the best one. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) sets out the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which bind government agencies and most private businesses alike. Australian Privacy Principle 12 gives individuals the right to access personal information an APP entity holds about them, and APP 13 gives the right to have that information corrected where it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

The two schemes meet in a specific way. For Commonwealth agencies, APP 12.2 defers to the FOI Act where it authorises a refusal, so FOI still governs the outcome. But for private organisations, which FOI does not cover at all, the privacy pathway is the only formal access route. A request to a bank, insurer, telecommunications company or private employer for your file runs through the Privacy Act, not FOI.

Correction has a parallel inside the FOI Act itself. Under Part V, you can apply to amend or annotate personal records held by a Commonwealth agency where they are incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading (s 48). For NSW state agencies, GIPA covers access to your personal information, with the processing-charge carve-out noted above.

Where requests typically go wrong

Most failed requests fail for one of four reasons, and all are avoidable.

The wrong agency: FOI binds only the holder of the documents. Confirm the level of government before you file.
A scope that triggers the practical refusal ground: Under ss 24 and 24AA of the FOI Act, an agency can refuse a request where processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert its resources, or where the request does not identify the documents sought. The agency must first run a consultation process (s 24AB) in which you get the chance to narrow the request, so a broad request is not instantly fatal, but it does hand the agency the initiative.
Third-party consultation: If your request touches another person's privacy (s 27A) or another business's commercial information (s 27), the agency must consult that party, which extends the clock and can produce redactions you did not expect.
Conflating FOI and privacy: Use FOI for government documents generally, and the privacy access route for your own personal information, particularly where the holder is a private organisation. Mixing them up wastes the fastest pathway.

When a lawyer helps

Most straightforward FOI requests can be made without a lawyer; the form, the statutory clock and the review options do most of the work. Professional help earns its keep at three specific points.

Framing a request that survives the practical refusal test: when you need documents but do not know what exists. A lawyer who knows how agencies describe their records can turn a fishing expedition into a scoped request that the agency can actually process.
Responding when you are the third party: If a competitor or a journalist requests documents containing your trade secrets or commercially valuable information, the agency will consult you under s 27 of the FOI Act. Whether to object, and how to frame the objection so it survives the public interest balancing test, is a judgement call where a lawyer adds real value.
Running a review: Internal review and Information Commissioner review turn on written submissions about how the exemptions and the public interest test apply to your documents. An assessment of prospects before you commit, and a submission drafted against the Act, materially improve the outcome.

The clock is the lever

The sharpest tool in this system is its own deadline. If a Commonwealth agency misses the 30-day window, you get a deemed refusal, review rights and no charge at all. That only works if your request was valid in the first place: in writing, properly scoped and sent to the agency that actually holds the documents. Get that right and every downstream mechanism, the timeframes, the charges, the exemptions and the reviews, runs in your favour. If you are unsure which pathway applies, or your request touches sensitive third-party information, a short consultation with a lawyer before you file will cost far less than a refused request and a six-month review.