Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009

An agency is authorised to make any government information held by the agency publicly available unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure of the information.

The information that an agency decides to make publicly available is to be made publicly available in any manner that the agency considers appropriate, either free of charge or at the lowest reasonable cost to the agency.

An agency must, at intervals of not more than 12 months, review its program for the release of government information under this section to identify the kinds of government information held by the agency that should in the public interest be made publicly available and that can be made publicly available without imposing unreasonable additional costs on the agency.

An agency can facilitate public access to government 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.

The functions of an agency under this section may only be exercised by or with the authority (given either generally or in a particular case) of the principal officer of the agency.