OAIC guidance to agencies on ID requirements in making an FOI request
Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
I request any guidance, during the course of managing IC review matters or extension of time applications or otherwise, issued by the OAIC to agencies on any ID verification requirements (or the lack thereof) when a person makes an FOI request under s 15 of the FOI Act (especially where the request is for any individual’s personal information).
Yours faithfully,
Toni Tydd
Your email has been received by the Office of Australian Information
Commissioner.
FOI requests to the OAIC
Please note that this email address is only used for making requests to
obtain access to a document held by the OAIC pursuant to the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act). We will only action and respond to
emails making FOI requests to the OAIC. For information on how to make an
FOI request to the OAIC, and to ensure that your request complies with the
requirements of the FOI Act, please refer to the FOI page on the OAIC’s
website at:
[1]https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/access-...
Once your request has been assessed by the OAIC, and registered on our
system, a separate acknowledgement email will be sent to you with a
reference number.
The OAIC does not hold all documents of other Commonwealth government
agencies, other state government agencies, or private organisations.
Accordingly:
1) if you are seeking to access documents of a particular
Commonwealth agency, you will need to make your request directly to the
relevant agency. For example, if you are requesting a copy of your visa
records, please make an FOI request and send it to the Department of Home
Affairs.
2) if you are seeking to access documents of a state or local
government agency, as each Australian state and territory also have
separate FOI legislation that governs information held by state government
agencies, please contact the relevant agency as to how to make an
application to access the documents. For example, if you are seeking
access to police report from NSW Police Force, it is governed by the
Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (GIPA Act), and you
will need to contact NSW police to find out how to make a GIPA application
for the police report.
3) if you are seeking to access documents of a private organization,
which the FOI Act does not apply to, please contact the organization
directly to find out how to access the documents you are seeking. For
example, if you are seeking to access to hospital records or your medical
centre records, please contact these organisations directly.
Enquiries and other matters
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forms instead, which are available at
[2]https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/contact...
- Enquiry
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- Notifiable Data Breach
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- FOI Complaint
- Freedom of Information Review
- Agency FOI Extension of Time Requests
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References
Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/access-...
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/contact...
Our reference: FOIREQ24/00613
Dear Toni Tydd
Freedom of Information request
I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act).
You FOI request was received by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) on 23 November 2024. This means that a decision on
your FOI request is currently due on 23 December 2024.
Scope of your request
Your FOI request was made in the following terms:
I request any guidance, during the course of managing IC review matters or
extension of time applications or otherwise, issued by the OAIC to
agencies on any ID verification requirements (or the lack thereof) when a
person makes an FOI request under s 15 of the FOI Act (especially where
the request is for any individual’s personal information).
In order to process your request as efficiently as possible, I will
exclude duplicates and early parts of email streams that are captured in
any later email streams from the scope of this request, unless you advise
me otherwise.
We will not identify you as the FOI applicant during any consultation
process unless we seek your permission. However, documents that are within
the scope of your request that we may need to consult third parties about
may contain your personal information.
Timeframes for dealing with your request
Section 15 of the FOI Act requires the OAIC to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.
The current decision due date for your request is 23 December 2024. We
will advise you if this timeframe is otherwise extended.
Disclosure Log
Documents released under the FOI Act may be published online on our
disclosure log, unless they contain personal or business information that
would be unreasonable to publish.
If you would like to discuss your FOI request, please contact me on my
contact details set out below.
Yours sincerely
[1][IMG]
Karen Tulloch
Assistant Director
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001
E: [2][email address]
The OAIC acknowledges Traditional Custodians of Country across
Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters and
communities. We pay our respect to First Nations people,
cultures and Elders past and present.
[3]Subscribe to Information Matters
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://www.oaic.gov.au/engage-with-us/n...
Dear OAIC - FOI,
As part of this request, I’d also like to seek any responses from agencies to any relevant OAIC guidance (as described in my request).
Yours sincerely,
Tony Tydd
Our reference: FOIREQ24/00613
Dear Tony Tydd
Thank you for your email below.
I note you have sought to extend the scope of your request to include any
responses from agencies to any relevant OAIC guidance (as described in
your request).
Kind regards
Karen Tulloch
Assistant Director
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001
E: [1][email address]