Frequently Asked Questions about a formal GIPA application

We will advise you within five working days of receiving your application if it is valid under the GIPA Act. If it is not valid, we will tell you why and help you to make it valid.

We will then process your application by searching for the information or let you know if it is more appropriate for your application to be dealt with by another agency.

In processing your application, we may have to consult other people, businesses or government agencies on the release of information that relates to them. A decision is then made:

• To provide access
• That the information is not held
• That the information is already available to you
• To refuse to provide access because there is an overriding public interest against disclosure
• To refuse to deal with your application
• To refuse to confirm or deny that the information is held, because there is an overriding public interest against disclosure confirming or denying that fact.

We will provide you with reasons for making any of the above decisions.

If we decide to defer access, we will give you reasons for deferral and when you will be given access.

We will try to deal with your request as soon as possible and within 20 working days of receiving your application. If we need to consult a third party or we need to retrieve archived records, the 20-day period will be extended by 10-15 days. We may not always be able to meet these timeframes, for example, if there is a large amount of information or many people to consult. We will let you know if this is the case and negotiate a longer timeframe with you. If your request will involve an unreasonable amount of processing work and time, we will ask you to revise your request. The time to revise the request will not be counted in calculating the deadline.

If we do not decide your access application within the deadline, it is deemed to be refused. We will continue to process your application, but your application fee will be refunded and you may seek a review of this deemed refusal. This will not apply if an extension of time has been arranged or payment of an advance deposit is pending. You will be advised of any changes to the timeframe in writing.

We try to make information available wherever possible. However, you may not be able to obtain information if there is an overriding public interest against disclosure. This can apply to information such as:

• Cabinet information
• confidential information
• information that would breach another person's privacy
• information that would prejudice someone's business, commercial, professional or financial interests
• information that would affect law enforcement and security
• information relating to sensitive threatened species and Aboriginal cultural heritage issues.

We can only refuse access to information if the public interests against disclosure outweigh the general public interests in favour of disclosure. There is no limit to the matters we can take into account in favour of releasing information. We will let you know the reasons if we decide not to release information.

We can also refuse an application if:

• your request would take an unreasonable and substantial amount of time and resources to process - we will help you refine your application so that we can process it
• you do not pay a deposit that we may ask for
• the information you ask for is already publicly available
• we have already decided a previous application from you for the information (or information that is substantially the same) and there are no reasonable grounds for believing that we would make a different decision
• the information is or has been the subject of a subpoena or other court order for the production of documents and is available to you because we have complied with that subpoena or court order
• we do not hold the information

There are a range of penalties that can be applied under the GIPA Act for the following conduct:

• an officer knowingly deciding a formal access application contrary to the requirements of the GIPA Act
• directing an officer to make a decision he or she knows is not permitted or required by the GIPA Act
• improperly influencing a decision on an access application
• knowingly misleading or deceiving an officer for the purpose of obtaining access to government information
• concealing, destroying or altering information for the purpose of preventing the release of information.