Freedom of information

We make a range of information available for public access. The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives members of the public a general right of access to documents of Geoscience Australia.

Your rights

The 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• ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading, and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 see any document that 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

Geoscience Australia supports the Declaration of Open Government and the Principles of open public sector information. Much of our data and information is already available for public access through this website.

You can get certain information, including personal information we hold about you, without following a formal process under the FOI Act.

You should also check the information we have published under the Information Publication Scheme and Disclosure log to see if what you are seeking is already available.

How to make an FOI request

Your request must:

• be in writing
• state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
• provide information about the document(s) you wish to access so that we can process your request
• provide an address or other contact details for reply.

You can use the Geoscience Australia FOI application form [DOCX 92.1 KB] or you can send your request in writing to:

FOI Coordinator
Legal Branch
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
GPO Box 2013
Canberra ACT 2601
Telephone: +61 2 6102 8104

FOI requests may also be lodged by email to FOI@industry.gov.au

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Coordinator on +61 2 6102 8104.

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. The most common charges are listed in the table below.

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.

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 from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

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 from the OAIC. 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.

More information

For more information about making an FOI request, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on +61 2 6102 8104.