Freedom of information (FOI)

What is FOI?

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act):

• gives everyone the right to access copies of documents held by Australian Government agencies and ministers’ offices, unless specific exclusions or exemptions apply
• requires Australian Government agencies to make FOI decisions within statutory timeframes
• requires Australian Government agencies to publish an FOI disclosure log of certain released documents
• requires Australian Government agencies to publish a broad range of information under the Information Publication Scheme (IPS).

What you can request

You can use this form to request a document held by any of the following:

• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
• Minister for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
• Minister for Health and Ageing
• Minister for Disability and the NDIS
• Minister for Aged Care and Seniors
• Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care
• Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health
• Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health
• Assistant Minister for Ageing.

You can make a request on behalf of someone else, though you will be required to provide evidence of authorisation to act on behalf of that person.

You may need to pay fees and charges if seeking access to non-personal information.

General enquiries

If you are seeking general information or answers to specific questions, please use our general enquiry form.

Personal health care records

We do not generally hold personal health documents such as:

• medical or hospital records
• pathology investigations or reports
• other diagnostic test results
• allied health practitioner records.

You can obtain health documents directly from your health practitioner or service provider. Hospital records should be requested through state and territory health departments.

State and territory health FOI contact information

• ACT Health – Freedom of Information
• NSW Health* – Government Information Public Access Act (GIPA)
• QLD Health – Right to Information
• NT Health – Freedom of Information
• WA Health* – Freedom of Information
• SA Health* – Freedom of Information
• VIC Health – Freedom of Information
• TAS Health – Right to Information

* Please note that health information access requests for NSW, SA and WA should be directed to the local health district where you sought treatment.

Medicare records

We do not hold Medicare records. To access your Medicare documents, please visit Services Australia.

My Aged Care records

My Aged Care recipients and their authorised representatives can access personal information and records directly via the My Aged Care Online Account portal, available through the myGov website.

You can also contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or by email to myagedcaresupport@healthdirect.org.au.

NDIS records

NDIS participants can request access to their personal information and records directly from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

You can contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110 or by email at foi@ndis.gov.au.

Other personal documents

We do not hold the following personal documents:

• police records or reports
• water bills
• rates notices
• ambulance records
• visa applications
• marriage or birth certificates.

Documents older than 20 years

You can request non-personal documents more than 20 years old from the National Archives of Australia (NAA). For more information, please visit Access to information under the Freedom of Information Act on the NAA website.

How to make an FOI request

Online form

You will require an email address to complete this online form.

Make an FOI request

Other options

You can also submit an FOI request by email or mail.

Your FOI request must:

• be in writing
• state that the request is made under the FOI Act
• provide enough information about the document(s) you wish to access so that we can process your request
• provide an email or postal address where we can contact you.

It is helpful if you tell us:

• the specific type of documents you are seeking (for example, emails, reports, data, evaluations or proposals)
• the subject of or a description of the documents you wish to access
• the date range of interest.

If we have any questions about the scope of your request, we will contact you by email or phone to clarify your request.

If you need help making an FOI request, please contact us.

FOI charges

You may be charged a processing fee for non-personal information access requests. The Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 set the charges at the following amounts.

FOI fees

If we apply a charge, we will provide you with a preliminary charge notice (an estimate) based on our initial assessment of the work required to process your request. If the amount is over $100, we will ask that you pay a deposit. The charge notice will be updated, and may be amended, once work on your FOI request is completed.

Once you have reviewed the preliminary charge notice, you can choose whether you wish to: 

• pay the charge or deposit to proceed with the request
• contest the way the charge was calculated
• ask that the charge be withdrawn or not imposed; reasons we would not impose a charge might include financial hardship or if access to the documents would be in the interest of a substantial section of the public
• withdraw the FOI request.

If you have questions or need help with a charge notice, please contact us.

How we process FOI requests

We will contact you within 14 days after you submit the form to acknowledge your request or request further information from you.

We will make a decision on your FOI request within 30 days unless that time has been extended by a provision within the FOI Act. The decision letter will explain the reasons for the FOI decision.

We will ask you to provide evidence of your identity if you are seeking to access or amend personal information, including information about yourself. We will also ask you to provide evidence of an authority to act if you are seeking to access another party’s personal or business information.

Sometimes, for complex or large requests, we may request an extension of time from you or the Australian Information Commissioner to process your request. We will always work to finalise your request as soon as possible within any extended statutory period. 

If we need to consult an external third party about documents in the scope of your request, the statutory time frame will automatically be extended by 30 days. If this occurs, we will notify you in writing and advise you of the new statutory due date.

Please see our FOI Operations manual for further information about how we will process your FOI request.

Reviews and complaints

If you disagree with an FOI decision we make, you can:

• request an internal review
• ask the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to review the decision.

Requests for internal review must be made in writing to the department within 30 days of the date of the original FOI decision. Information about how to apply for an internal review will be included in your FOI decision letter.

Internal reviews are conducted by a senior executive FOI Decision Maker in our department. We will make the new decision within 30 days of receiving your internal review request.

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review the original FOI decision or an internal review decision within 60 days of the date of decision. The OAIC has more information about how to apply for external reviews.

If you are unhappy with the way that we have processed your FOI request, you can make a complaint to the OAIC.

FOI disclosure log

Our disclosure log lists the documents provided in response to FOI requests for the past 5 years. You can view our older FOI disclosures in the Australian Government web archive in Trove. If you wish to access any documents on Trove, please contact us quoting the FOI reference number.

Under the FOI Act, we are not required to publish the following documents or information in the disclosure log:

• personal information about anyone, if releasing the information would be unreasonable
• information about a person’s business, commercial, financial or professional affairs, if releasing the information would be unreasonable
• other information that the Australian Information Commissioner has determined should not be disclosed
• information that cannot reasonably or practicably be published because of required deletions to the document.

We update our disclosure log within 10 days of release of eligible documents.

View the disclosure log

Contact