Your rights
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (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- ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading; and
- 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 access any document 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.
Documents available outside the FOI Act
You can get certain information, including personal information we hold about you, without following a formal process under the FOI Act. You should check the information we have published under the Information Publication Scheme and our FOI disclosure log to see if what you are seeking is already publicly available.
How to make a request
Your request must:
- be in writing
- state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
- provide sufficient information concerning the document(s) to assist us to identify the document(s) and process your request
- specify how notices under the FOI Act may be sent to you.
No application fee is required.
Where to send your FOI request
You can send your FOI request:
The Freedom of Information (FOI) Coordinator
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)
Public Law Branch, TOP CW2
PO Box 7576
Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610
Delivered in person to a FaHCSIA office.
Contact details – National Office and State Offices
If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Coordinator on (02) 6146 3177 or (02) 6146 2978 or by email at foi@fahcsia.gov.au.
FaHCSIA Freedom of Information contact officers and details:
FaHCSIA National Office
FOI Coordinator
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services & Indigenous Affairs
Public Law Branch, TOP CW2
PO Box 7576
Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610
Phone: (02) 6146 3177 or (02) 6146 2978
Fax: (02) 6204 5099
Email: foi@fahcsia.gov.au
New South Wales State Office
FOI Contact Officer
Office GPO Box 9820
Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (02) 8255 7799
Victorian State Office
FOI Contact Officer
GPO Box 9820
Melbourne Vic 3001
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (03) 8626 1220
Queensland State Office
FOI Contact Officer
GPO Box 9820
Brisbane Q 4001
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (07) 3004 4780
South Australia State Office
FOI Contact Officer
GPO Box 9820
Adelaide SA 5001
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (08) 8400 2199
West Australian State Office
FOI Contact Officer
GPO Box 9820
Perth WA 6001
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (08) 9229 1566
Tasmania State Office
FOI Contact Officer
GPO Box 9820
Hobart Tas 7001
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (03) 6211 9304
Northern Territory Office
FOI Contact Officer
GPO Box 9820
Darwin NT 0801
Phone: 1300 653 227
Fax: (02) 6204 5858
Fees and charges
There is no application fee for an FOI request.
There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you. However, processing charges may apply to other requests. These charges are available on Comlaw's website
If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.
You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.
What you can expect from us
We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will also give you an estimate of the charges that apply to 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 impose a charge
- 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 or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at www.oaic.gov.au.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC's website 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.
FOI Disclosure log
Full details: FOI Disclosure log.
More information
If you require more information, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on (02) 6146 3176 or by email at foi@fahcsia.gov.au.
Certain documents that we have released under the FOI Act can be obtained at our FOI Disclosure log page. Information is available here about FaHCSIA's Information Publication Scheme.
Further information about the FOI Act is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website.