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You can access:

  • information and documents from your file without a formal request
  • material under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Access to information without a formal request

You can access certain information from your file without a formal request, for example:

  • copies of letters we sent you
  • hearing audio
  • original documents you have given us
  • our decision and reasons.

Access to material under FOI

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
  • give us information about the documents you wish to access so that we can process your request
  • give us an address so we can reply to you.

To make a request, you can use:

Fees and Charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.

We might charge you a fee if your request is for information other than your own personal information. We will write to you if we decide to do this.

Processing FOI requests

We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request and give you our decision within 30 days, unless that time has been extended.

If a document contains information about a third party, we might need to consult with them and extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days.

If your request is complex we might seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days or apply to the Australian Information Commissioner for an extension of time.

Appeal or review rights

You can appeal our decision by making a request in writing for an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another AAT officer. We will advise you of the new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original FOI 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).

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).