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Freedom of Information

Your rights

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives any person the right to:

  • Access copies of documents (except exempt documents) we hold
  • Ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading, and
  • Seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to see any document that we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

Documents available outside the FOI Act

You can get certain information, including personal information we hold about you, without following a formal process under the FOI Act.

Categories of documents held by AHL

The following is a list of categories of documents held by AHL:

  • Briefing papers and submissions prepared for portfolio ministers and parliamentary secretaries
  • Cabinet documents, Cabinet submissions and associated briefs
  • Documents in relation to questions in parliament and related replies
  • Documents relating to program administration
  • Funding agreements, contracts and deeds of standing offers
  • Media releases by portfolio ministers, parliamentary secretaries or the Department
  • Ministerial, inter-departmental and general correspondence
  • Papers and records relating to internal administration, including working drafts, statistical records and facsimiles
  • Papers relating to meetings (agenda, minutes and reports)
  • Policy documents and procedures
  • Records relating to human and financial resource management
  • Records of speeches, public addresses, discussion papers and other statements made by portfolio ministers and AHL Board Directors
  • Requests for legal advice, advice given and other related legal documents
  • Research and investigation papers
  • Tender documents.

How to make a request

Your request must:

  • be in writing
  • state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
  • provide information about the document(s) to assist us to process your request
  • provide an address for reply.

You can send your request to:

FOI Contact Officer

Aboriginal Hostels Limited

PO Box 30

WODEN ACT 2606

Or email: foi.officer@ahl.gov.au

If you ask a third party to make an FOI request on your behalf, you need to provide a specific, written authority to send copies of documents to you, care of that person, or to allow that person to inspect copies of documents containing information about you.

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on 02 6212 2016 or by email at foi.officer@ahl.gov.au.

Fees and charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.

If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.

You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.

What you can expect from us

We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will also give you an estimate of the charges that apply to your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

If you disagree with our decision

When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.

You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

  • if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
  • if we impose a charge
  • if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Internal review

You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.

Information Commissioner Review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC’s website. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information

If you require more information, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on 02 6212 2016 or by email at foi.officer@ahl.gov.au.

Further information about the FOI Act is available on the OAIC website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/rights-and-responsibilities