Better health and ageing for all Australians

Legislation

Freedom of Information (FOI)

Information about the Department of Health and Ageing's handling of FOI requests.

In this section:

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) is designed to give the Australian community access to information held by the Commonwealth Government. One of the ways this is done is by providing a legally enforceable right of access to documents provided that they are not exempt documents.

If you want to obtain access to a document or documents that may be held by the Department of Health and Ageing, you will need to lodge a formal freedom of information request.

Making a Freedom of Information (FOI) request

The request must:
    • be made in writing;
    • state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act;
    • provide enough information to DoHA to clearly identify the documents sought.
To make an FOI request, download and complete the request for access to documents under Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Word 69 KB) (Cth) (RTF 69 KB)

FOI requests should be sent to:
By post:
Freedom of Information Coordinator
FOI Unit
Department of Health and Ageing
GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Or
By email: foi@health.gov.au

Charges
Although there is no longer an application fee, the Department levies charges under the Freedom of Information Regulations for processing a request. The Department may decide to remit, reduce or not impose fees and charges for any reason, including grounds of financial hardship or general public interest if this can be established by the applicant.

The first five hours of decision making time is free of charge for all applicants.

An applicant who seeks access to their own personal information does not pay any charges.

Any charges are not payable where an agency or a Minister fails to notify a decision on time.

Changes to the FOI Act

A number of changes have been made to the FOI Act and came into effect on 1 November 2010. For more information, visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website: www.oaic.gov.au

Amendment of Records
The FOI Act also creates a right to amend records that contain personal information that is incorrect, misleading or out of date.

Contact
If you would like further information about making an FOI request, you can contact the FOI Unit on ph: (02) 6289 1666 during normal working hours.

Alternatively, you can send an email to foi@health.gov.au