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Making a freedom of information request

Your rights

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives any person the right to:

• access copies of documents (except exempt documents) the AAT holds

• ask for information the AAT holds about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading, and

• seek a review of the AAT's decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to see any document that the AAT holds. The AAT 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.

Some information is available without making an FOI request - see our Freedom of Information page.

 

How to make a request

If you want to make a freedom of information 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) to assist us to process your request

• provide an address for reply.

If your request is about information relating to an application made to the AAT, you should send your request to the District Registrar of the relevant registry.

If your request is about access to other documents held by the AAT, you should send the request to the Executive Director, Operations or by email to foi@aat.gov.au.

If you need help with your request, please contact the District Registrar of the relevant registry or the Executive Director, Operations.

If you ask a third party to make an FOI request on your behalf, you need to give us a signed written authority to send copies of documents to that person, or to allow that person to inspect copies of documents containing information about you.

 

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:

Activity item	Charge
Search and retrieval: time the AAT spends searching for or retrieving a document	$15.00 per hour
Decision making: time the AAT spends in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions	First five hours: Nil Subsequent hours: $20 per hour
Transcript: preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium	$4.40 per page of transcript
Photocopy	$0.10 per page
Inspection: supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at the AAT's premises	$6.25 per half hour (or part thereof)
Delivery: posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request	Cost of postage or delivery

 

If the AAT decides to impose a charge, the AAT will give you a written estimate and the basis of its calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, the AAT may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, and where the estimated charge exceeds $100, the AAT may ask you to pay a 25% deposit, before the AAT processes 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 make such a request, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.

 

What you can expect from the AAT

The AAT will tell you within 14 days that it has received your request. The AAT will also give you an estimate of the charges that apply to your request. The AAT will give you its decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, the AAT will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. The AAT may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

 

If you disagree with the AAT's decision

When the AAT has made a decision about your FOI request, it will send you a letter explaining its decision and giving you information about your review and appeal rights.

You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

• if the AAT refuses to give you access to all or part of a document or if the AAT defers giving you access

• if the AAT imposes a charge

• if the AAT refuses to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with the AAT's 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 the AAT reconsiders its decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in the AAT. The AAT will advise you of its new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.

 

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review the AAT's original decision or the AAT's 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 the AAT has handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate the AAT's actions. More information is available on the OAIC's website at www.oaic.gov.au. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about the AAT's actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

 

More information

If you need more information, please contact the Assistant Registrar or send an email to foi@aat.gov.au.

Certain documents that the AAT has released under the FOI Act can be obtained at the AAT's FOI disclosure log page. Information about the AAT's contribution to the Information Publication Scheme can also be obtained.