Consultation on draft revisions to Part 13 of the FOI Guidelines: Information Publication Scheme

Publication date: 22 December 2022

This consultation is closed. The deadline for submissions was 24 February 2023.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is seeking comments from interested stakeholders on the content, guidance, readability and accessibility of draft revisions to Part 13 of the FOI Guidelines (Information Publication Scheme).

Background

Under s 93A of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) the Australian Information Commissioner has power to issue written guidelines for the purposes of the FOI Act. Australian Government agencies and ministers are required to have regard to any guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner when performing a function or exercising a power under the FOI Act.

The Information Publication Scheme (IPS) encourages Australian Government agencies to release information to the public proactively. It is intended to encourage greater openness and transparency in government and reflects the pro-disclosure goals of the FOI Act.

The revised guidance:

• clarifies the types of information that can be released and in what format
• clarifies the overlap between IPS requirements and other schemes that promote proactive disclosure of government-held information.

The OAIC is consulting on the revised guidance ahead of a review on the operation of the IPS to be undertaken in 2023.

How to make comments

Submissions can be made by:

The closing date for comments is Friday 24 February 2023.

We intend to make all submissions publicly available. Please indicate when making your submission if it contains confidential information you don’t want made public and why it should not be published. Requests for access to confidential comments will be determined in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Although you may lodge submissions electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. To help us meet our accessibility obligations, we would appreciate you providing your submission in a web accessible format or, alternatively, in a format that will allow us to easily convert it to HTML code — for example Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format.

Privacy collection statement

The OAIC will use the personal information it collects in the course of this consultation for the purpose of finalising the updates to the guidelines and our ongoing engagement with you.

Submissions received

The OAIC have received two submissions from agencies providing comments and feedback on the proposed changes to the draft revisions to Part 13 of the FOI Guidelines.  Copies of those submissions are below.

The OAIC will consider the feedback.  Once the final guidelines have been settled, the FOI Guidelines webpage will be updated, and those amendments will also be communicated through our Social Media accounts and through the Information Commissioner Officer Network (ICON) and the Information Matters Newsletter.

Copies of submissions received on this consultation

ATO submission to the OAIC – IPS Guidelines

Department of Education IPS consultation response (the Department of Education has requested redaction of material from the submission.)