The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) provides the public with a legal right to access documents in the Government's possession, subject to exemptions.

Members of the public seeking access to documents that may be held by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (the department) should lodge a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

We have processes to provide you with your personal information without the need for a FOI request, where it is appropriate to do so. If you are seeking access to documents that contain your personal information, we will require proof of your identity before we release any personal information.

You should review the following information before, making a FOI request.

Media enquiries

General media enquiries (not FOI requests) should be directed to the department's media team at media@dfat.gov.au.

Archival records

The Archives Act 1983 (Archives Act) provides the National Archives of Australia with responsibility for storing the archives of the Commonwealth.

Documents that fall within the open access period of the Archives Act are not subject to the FOI Act, unless the document contains personal information. The open access period for Commonwealth records (except for Cabinet notebooks and census information) is 20 years.

Requests for access to a document which falls within the open access period should be made to the National Archives of Australia.

Requests for documents held by other agencies and ministers

We can only provide access to documents that the Department Foreign Affairs and Trade holds.

Requests for access to documents held by a minister should be directed to the relevant minister.

We encourage you to check which agency or minister you need to request documents from.

The Administrative Arrangements Orders and agency websites can help you to identify the right entity. For further information to assist you to find the correct agency, visit Requesting documents of other agencies.

If you are seeking international movement records or visa and citizenship information, please contact The Department of Home Affairs.

Administrative release

Administrative release (or access) means release of government information, in response to a specific request, outside the processes in the FOI Act.

Administrative access may involve:

• providing information or documents outside the FOI Act in response to a request from a member of the public;
• releasing data or statistics following a specific request;
• making commonly requested information available through administrative access arrangements; or
• providing staff with access to their own personnel records through established administrative processes.

It is often a simpler and more efficient process than responding more formally to requests for documents under the FOI Act. Please see more information about administrative access on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.

Paragraph 3.9 of the FOI Guidelines, directs agencies to seek the FOI Applicant's consent to withdraw their FOI request, before releasing documents administratively.

Accessing your personal information – current and former departmental employees

Current and former departmental employees can obtain access to their employment record through administrative release without the need to make a formal FOI request.

To access your personal records, you must provide proof of identity. Please direct all enquiries to foi@dfat.gov.au.

Accessing your personal information – passport records

The Australian Passport Office (APO) may be able to provide you with access to your personal passport records without the need to make a formal FOI request.

Records that may be released to you administratively include:

• your passport application
• your passport photo page
• your passport history

To access your passport records, you must provide proof of identity. Requests can be made by emailing foi@dfat.gov.au.

Amendment or Annotation of personal information

Under Part V of the FOI Act, you may apply to have your personal information amended or annotated if you believe it is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

Requests for amendment or annotation must be made in writing and should clearly identify the information you consider to be incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading, together with the amendment sought and any supporting evidence.

Requests for amendment or annotation of personal information should be sent to foi@dfat.gov.au.

How to make a FOI request

Under section 15(2) of the FOI Act, a FOI application must:

• Be made in writing
• State that it is an application made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
• Provide sufficient information to allow the department to identify the documents sought
• Provide details of how notices may be sent to the applicant (email or postal address)

Writing an effective FOI request

To assist the department to identify and locate the documents you are seeking, it is helpful to clearly describe the information of interest. It is generally not necessary to list every type of document, such as emails, briefs, reports, meeting minutes, file notes or spreadsheets. A request for documents ordinarily captures all forms of recorded information held by the department.

When preparing your request, you may wish to include:

• relevant dates or date ranges
• the subject matter or issue you are interested in
• the business area (see the organisational chart [PDF]), relevant High Commission or Embassy, program or project likely to hold the documents
• names of individuals, organisations, policies or initiatives relevant to the request
• any specific document or category of documents you are seeking.

Where possible, focus on the information you are seeking rather than providing an extensive list of document types. Requests that are clear and appropriately scoped assist the department to process requests more efficiently and may help to avoid delays.

Requests that are very broad, cover lengthy periods of time, or involve a substantial volume of material may require extensive searches and processing. In these circumstances, the department may contact you to discuss refining the scope of your request. This can assist in ensuring that the request can be processed efficiently and may avoid the need to consider the practical refusal provisions of the FOI Act.

Submit your FOI request by:

Email: foi@dfat.gov.au

Post:

The Director, Freedom of Information Section
Regulatory and Legal Policy Division
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
R.G. Casey Building, John McEwen Crescent
BARTON ACT 0221

Authority to Act

If you are submitting a FOI request on behalf of another person, or seeking another individual's personal information, you must provide evidence of your authority to act on their behalf. This includes documents that verify your identity and demonstrate that you have the individual's consent or legal authority to make the request. Acceptable forms of identification may include:

• Passport
• Birth Certificate
• Citizenship Certificate
• Other government-issued photo identification

You may also be required to provide a signed consent form or written authorisation from the individual concerned. If you do not provide sufficient evidence of your identity and/or authority to act, access to documents may be refused.

Processing your request

We will acknowledge receipt of your request within 14 days and aim to process it within 30 days, in accordance with the statutory timeframe set out in section 15(5) of the FOI Act.

If we are required to consult with a third party, for example where the documents contain another person's personal information, the processing time may be extended by up to 30 additional days as set out in section 15(6) of the FOI Act.

Where a request is particularly complex or involves a large volume of documents, we may seek your agreement to extend the processing timeframe. Alternatively, we may apply to the Information Commissioner for an extension of time.

Processing charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request. The department applies processing charges in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Fees and Charges) Regulations.

There is no charge where you are seeking access to your own personal information. For other requests, the first five hours of decision-making time are provided free of charge. If a processing charge applies, you will be notified and required to pay the charge before access to the documents is granted.

Review rights

If you wish to seek an internal review of the decision made on your FOI request, you may apply for internal review within 30 days of being notified of the decision.

Alternatively, you may write to the Information Commissioner seeking a review of the department's decision. An application to the Information Commissioner should be made within 60 days of being notified of the decision. Your application to the Information Commissioner must include an address for service for notices to be sent and a copy of the department's decision. Refer to the OAIC website for more information.

Complaints

If you are not happy with how your FOI request was processed by the department, you are welcome to make a complaint by sending an email with the details of your complaint to the department via foi@dfat.gov.au.

You may also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the department's handling of your FOI request. Refer to the OAIC website for more information.

Contact us

For more information on FOI requests generally please visit the OAIC website or email foi@dfat.gov.au.

Other Useful Information

• Current FOI disclosure log
• Older FOI disclosure log
• FOI disclosure log - Australian aid related requests
• Information publications scheme

Privacy Notice

Personal information, including if relevant, sensitive information (as defined in section 6 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), such as health information, criminal records, biometric information etc), that you provide will be collected, used and disclosed by the department for the purposes of processing and managing your FOI related requests.

The department may undertake consultation in relation to your request with affected persons, organisations, State, Territory, Foreign or Commonwealth Government agencies. The department will only advise of your identity as the FOI Applicant to a person, organisation or State, Territory, Foreign or Commonwealth Government consulted under the FOI Act with your consent. However, please note that the documents that you are requesting access to may enable the person or organisation consulted to infer your identity.

We may need to collect further personal information from you to manage and process your FOI request. If you do not provide this information to the department, it may affect how we handle your FOI request (for example, we may require you to prove your identity before we disclose your personal information to you).

If your request is transferred to another agency or if there is a review of our FOI decision, we may need to use or disclose some of your personal information for the review process, including to the review body; for example to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, a court or tribunal.

The personal information, including sensitive information, may be disclosed to overseas recipients (such as any individual, organisation or government agency we are required to consult with) for the purposes of processing and managing your FOI request.

The department's Privacy Policy contains important information including how you can access and seek correction of personal information we hold about you, how to make a privacy complaint, and how we will deal with such a complaint. If you have any queries about how we manage your personal information, please contact our Privacy Team at privacy@dfat.gov.au.