Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009

An agency must make the government information that is its open access information publicly available unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure of the information.

Open access information is to be made publicly available free of charge on a relevant website (unless to do so would impose unreasonable additional costs on the agency) and can be made publicly available in any other way that the agency considers appropriate.

At least one of the ways in which an agency makes open access information publicly available must be free of charge. Access provided in any other way can be charged for.

An agency must facilitate public access to open access information contained in a record by deleting matter from a copy of the record to be made publicly available if inclusion of the matter would otherwise result in there being an overriding public interest against disclosure of the record and it is practicable to delete the matter.

An agency must keep a record of the open access information (if any) that it does not make publicly available on the basis of an overriding public interest against disclosure. The record is to indicate only the general nature of the information concerned.

Nothing in this section or the regulations requires or permits an agency to make open access information available in any way that would constitute an infringement of copyright.

In this section—

a website maintained by the agency, or

for open access information prescribed under section 18(g) for which a website is prescribed by the regulations—the website.