The Law Handbook 2024

1130 Section 12: Government and the individual Fees and charges under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) Application Fee For request for access $0.00 For application for internal review $0.00 Processing charges Search and retrieval, per hour $15.00 Decision-making time, per hour First five hours: $0.00; each subsequent hour: $20.00 Extraction and production of written documents from computers or other equipment At cost Reproduction of computer information onto computer disk At cost Transcripts of sound recordings, shorthand, etc., per page $4.40 Photocopies of written documents, per page $0.10 Copies, other than photocopies, of written documents, per page $4.40 Replaying or copying disks, etc. At cost Supervised inspection, per half hour (or part thereof) $6.25 Dispatch to an address at the applicant’s request Cost of postage or delivery Deposits may be charged (they are refundable only when charges are reduced or not imposed under section 29 of the Act) as follows: • where processing charges, as above, exceed $25 but do not exceed $100; • where processing charges, as above, exceed $100 $20.00 25% of estimated charge Two important exceptions exist where no charges apply. First, where an applicant requests access to their own personal information, including income support information, no charge is payable (reg 7(1), FoI Regulations (Cth)). Second, an agency or minister cannot charge a fee if they don’t make a decision about an access request within the statutory time limits, unless they have an extension (regs 7(2), 7(3)). Where an agency or minister decides that the applicant is to pay a charge in relation to their request for access to documents, the applicant is to be provided with an estimate of charges and how the charge is calculated (s 29(1)(b)). If the applicant does not accept the estimate, or does not seek to have it reviewed within 30 days, the FoI request is deemed to have been withdrawn (s 29(2)). Applicants can elect not to continue with the application after being advised that charges may apply. Applicants can ask for charges to be reduced or waived at any time on any grounds. In considering the applicant’s request, the agency or minister must consider whether paying the charge would cause financial hardship and whether giving access to the document is in the public interest (s 29(5)). An agency or minister can still decide to impose a charge even though it would cause the applicant financial hardship or disclosure would be in the public interest. However, there is a right of internal review, review by the AI Commissioner and appeal to the AAT on the imposition or amount of the charge. Commonwealth FoI: Outcomes of requests Reasons for decisions Where an agency or minister refuses an applicant’s request for access to documents or defers access to documents, the decision-maker is required to give written reasons for the decision and to tell the applicant about their rights to have the decision reviewed (s 26). If the applicant has requested that any charges be reduced or waived, the decision-