What it does
The Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 (the IC Act) creates and empowers an independent statutory office holder—the Information Commissioner—to oversee agency compliance with information access legislation, primarily the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). At its core the IC Act performs three interlocking functions: (1) establishing the office and its governance (Part 2), (2) conferring investigative, complaint-handling, reporting and coercive powers (Part 3), and (3) ensuring accountability through parliamentary reporting and external oversight (Parts 4 and 5).
Section 14 provides the foundational statement: the Commissioner “has such functions as may be conferred or imposed on the Commissioner by or under this or any other Act”. The primary vehicle is the GIPA Act, but s 3(1) defines “Information Act” expansively to include the GIPA Act “and any other Act that is declared by the regulations to be an Information Act”. This delegated power gives the regime future-proofing; to date only the GIPA Act has been so designated, yet the statutory language permits seamless extension.
The Commissioner’s day-to-day work is procedural rather than determinative. Section 15 mandates an informal, merits-based approach: the Commissioner must “act in an informal manner (including avoiding conducting formal hearings) as far as possible”, is not bound by the rules of evidence, and may inform himself or herself “in any way that the Commissioner considers to be just”. This mirrors the philosophy of the GIPA Act itself—presumptive disclosure unless an overriding public interest against disclosure exists.
Complaints form the largest operational workload. Under s 17 any “person” (defined by reference to the GIPA Act) may complain about “the conduct (including action or inaction) of an agency in the exercise of functions under an Information Act”. Importantly, a note to s 17 cross-references s 89(4) of the GIPA Act: a reviewable decision cannot itself be the subject of a complaint if the complainant is still within time to seek NCAT review. This prevents forum-shopping while still allowing complaints about systemic delay or bad process.