Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Act 2010

An agency must prepare a plan showing the following:

what information the agency proposes to publish for the purposes of this Part;

how, and to whom, the agency proposes to publish information for the purposes of this Part;

how the agency otherwise proposes to comply with this Part.

The agency must publish the following information:

the plan prepared under subsection (1);

details of the structure of the agency’s organisation (for example, in the form of an organisation chart);

as far as practicable, details of the functions of the agency, including its decision‑making powers and other powers affecting members of the public (or any particular person or entity, or class of persons or entities);

details of appointments of officers of the agency that are made under Acts (other than APS employees within the meaning of the Public Service Act 1999);

the information in annual reports prepared by the agency that are laid before the Parliament;

details of arrangements for members of the public to comment on specific policy proposals for which the agency is responsible, including how (and to whom) those comments may be made;

information in documents to which the agency routinely gives access in response to requests under Part III (access to documents), except information of the following kinds:

personal information about any individual, if it would be unreasonable to publish the information;

information about the business, commercial, financial or professional affairs of any person, if it would be unreasonable to publish the information;

other information of a kind determined by the Information Commissioner under subsection (3), if it would be unreasonable to publish the information;

information held by the agency that is routinely provided to the Parliament in response to requests and orders from the Parliament;

contact details for an officer (or officers) who can be contacted about access to the agency’s information or documents under this Act;

the agency’s operational information (see section 8A).

If operational information is not published in accordance with this section, a person must not be subjected to any prejudice as a result (see section 10).

The Information Commissioner may, by legislative instrument, make a determination for the purposes of subparagraph (2)(g)(iii).

The agency may publish other information held by the agency.

This section applies to a function or power of an agency whether or not the agency has the function or power under an enactment.

See section 8C for restrictions on the requirement to publish this information.

The agency must have regard to the objects of this Act and guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner in performing functions, and exercising powers, under this section (see section 9A).