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Commonwealth act
This Act is a major overhaul of Australia's Freedom of Information (FOI) laws — the rules that give everyday Australians the right to ask for and receive documents held by the federal government.
This law affects every Australian who wants to know what the government is doing, as well as every federal government agency and Minister (government decision-maker). Journalists, researchers, businesses, and private citizens all benefit from — and are affected by — these reforms.
Previously, you had to ask for government information. Now, agencies must automatically publish a wide range of information online without being asked, including:
If an agency fails to publish the rules it uses to make decisions affecting you, you cannot be penalised for not knowing those rules.
A new clearer rule says agencies must give you access to documents unless a specific exemption applies. Previously the system was more ambiguous.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Act 2010.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
Some documents are now classified as "conditionally exempt" — meaning the agency can withhold them, but only if releasing them would on balance be contrary to the public interest. This is a higher bar than before. Categories include:
Importantly, agencies cannot refuse access just because it might be embarrassing to the government, cause confusion, or because the author was a senior official. These factors are explicitly banned from the decision.
When the government releases a document to someone via an FOI request, it must generally publish that document online within 10 working days — so the whole community benefits, not just the individual who asked.
Documents prepared for Cabinet (the group of senior Ministers who make major government decisions) are still protected, but the exemption has been tightened. Purely factual information in Cabinet documents is no longer automatically exempt.
Government records are now released to the public archives faster. The general waiting period for older records has been reduced from 30 years to 20 years (for records created after 2000). Special rules apply for Cabinet notebooks (kept at 30 years) and Census records.
A new independent watchdog — the Australian Information Commissioner — is created to:
These reforms shift the culture from "government keeps information by default" to "government shares information by default." If you want to know how a government decision affecting you was made, what rules an agency follows, or what documents exist on a topic — this law gives you stronger, clearer rights to find out.