NSW access to information law under review

The five year statutory review of the NSW Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 and the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 is underway with a call for submissions. Get cracking!

The purpose of the review is to determine whether the policy objectives of the Acts remain valid and whether the terms of the Acts remain appropriate for securing these objectives.

The policy objective of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 is to open government information to the public by:

• authorising and encouraging the proactive public release of government information by agencies, and
• giving members of the public an enforceable right to access government information, and
• providing that access to government information is restricted only when there is an overriding public interest against disclosure, in order to advance an open, accountable, fair and effective system of Government.

The objective of the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 is to establish an independent champion of open Government.

 

The review will also consider the relationship between the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 and the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

 

The Acts can be viewed at www.legislation.nsw.gov.au

The Department of Police and Justice invites interested individuals and organisations to make written submissions to the review. Submissions should be sent to: The Director, Justice Policy, Department of Police and Justice, GPO Box 6, Sydney NSW 2001 or by email to justice.policy@agd.nsw.gov.au.
If you would like to provide comments in an alternative format please call (02) 8061 9222. If you are hearing or speech impaired please contact us via the National Relay Service on 133 677.
 
All submissions will be treated as public and may be published, unless you indicate that all or part of your submission should be treated as confidential.
 
The closing date for submissions is 29 August 2014.