Freedom of Information: The Government Legal File

Identify the Access Law and Request Scope

Identify the agency and governing access law before calculating a deadline or assessing an exemption. The Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act governs its own agency and ministerial access scheme, with exclusions and limits. State and territory bodies operate under their respective regimes.

Start the legal file with four entries:

1. Identify the receiving body, its coverage and the person authorised to decide.
2. Retain the original request and record the documents or information sought, relevant period and any agreed clarification.
3. Determine whether the application meets the applicable statutory requirements. Record receipt and any step needed to make it valid.
4. Calculate the decision period under that law, then record each lawful extension and required notice.

A request for payment records and commissioned analysis can capture different documents from a request for the final report alone. Clarify ambiguity with the applicant without silently narrowing the request. The OAIC’s processing guidance explains Commonwealth request handling, searches and decision notices.

NSW GIPA Act Access Routes

The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 is the NSW framework, commonly called the GIPA Act. The NSW Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) describes four access routes:

• Mandatory open access covers information agencies must make publicly available, subject to the statutory limits.
• Authorised proactive release lets agencies release other information without waiting for an application.
• Informal release responds to a request outside the formal application process.
• A formal access application invokes the statutory application and decision process.

Identify which route applies to the requested financial information. An agency’s published contract register might answer part of a request. A bank-statement bundle or commissioned report can require a separate assessment. Do not make informal release a compulsory preliminary hurdle to a valid formal application.

Use NSW rules for validity, decision periods and public-interest assessment. A Commonwealth FOI exemption number has no operative role in a NSW GIPA decision.

Locate Source Records and Commissioned Analysis

Search across the business areas and providers that hold the requested records. Identify finance staff, the instructing legal team, investigation staff and relevant records officers. Include approved repositories, email, archives and the external engagement file where relevant.

Keep a search log recording the custodian, system, search terms, period searched and result. Follow a report’s source references back to the bank statements. Schedule extracted spreadsheets separately from reports and correspondence about the access decision.

For example, a report finding labelled R-07 might point to statement S-04, page 12, and workbook row 86. Preserve those identifiers in the schedule. Giving access to the workbook does not answer a request that also captures the source statement.

Distinguish these search outcomes explicitly:

• Record absent: the documented searches do not locate it, and the decision applies the statutory test for unavailable records.
• Record held externally: the provider has it, and the agency assesses its retrieval rights and obligations.

For Commonwealth contracts, OAIC contractor guidance explains section 6C’s contractual measures for documents relating to contract performance. Assess the contract’s coverage and terms before treating a provider-held working file as unavailable. The IPC’s NSW contractor guidance describes a different framework for public-service contracts. Neither outsourcing nor a confidentiality clause settles the access decision.

Assess Exemptions and Required Consultation

Assess the actual content of each document against the applicable provision. Financial sensitivity does not establish that every page must be withheld.

Under Commonwealth FOI, distinguish exemptions from conditional exemptions. Conditional exemptions require the statutory public-interest assessment before access can be refused. The OAIC’s exemptions guidance explains that distinction and the requirement to consider practicable partial access.

Keep the legal grounds separate. Personal information raises different questions from commercially valuable information or an actionable confidence. For legal professional privilege, identify the communication, its purpose, the privilege holder and any waiver. A report’s delivery to a lawyer does not itself establish privilege over the report or its underlying statements.

Identify required consultation before proposing disclosure. Commonwealth provisions address business information and personal privacy through different tests. Explain the proposed disclosure and seek reasons supporting any objection, while protecting unrelated information. Under OAIC conditional-exemption guidance, an affected person’s objection informs the decision but gives no veto. Observe applicable third-party review restrictions before releasing the material.

Make and Explain the Access Decision

Prepare a document schedule that lets another decision-maker follow the outcome without exposing the protected content. Record the document identifier, description, pages, access outcome and legal basis. Link each refusal ground to reasons and supporting evidence held securely on the file.

Consider a fictional disputed-payment file. The request captures a supplier invoice, the bank statement recording payment, an extracted ledger and a lawyer’s advice.

Record	Proposed assessment	Decision record
Invoice P-01	Assess the invoice and any personal or business information separately	Explain any lawful withholding at field or passage level
Statement S-04	Assess the payment entry and unrelated transactions against the request and law	Identify released pages and any lawful deletions
Ledger L-02	Assess its own content, including references to S-04	Preserve the source cross-reference
Advice A-03	Assess whether privilege is established and retained	Record the basis without reproducing the advice

These are assessment tasks, not predetermined release outcomes. If part of S-04 is lawfully withheld, create an access copy with permanent redaction. Preserve the untouched original and record exactly what the access copy omits. Test the released copy for searchable text or hidden material that defeats the redaction.

The decision notice must explain the outcome under the governing law. Record the decision-maker’s authority, material findings, applicable provisions, consultation considered and review information. Keep the unredacted evidentiary reasons on the protected file where their disclosure would reveal withheld information.

NSW GIPA Decisions and Review

Apply the NSW public-interest framework to the same record schedule. The IPC’s public-interest guidance starts with the presumption favouring disclosure. Consider public oversight of expenditure alongside any applicable statutory considerations against disclosure. Only the Act’s permitted considerations against disclosure can enter that balance.

For any claimed conclusive presumption, identify the exact Schedule 1 category and test its conditions and exceptions under the GIPA Act. Do not treat “confidential” on a report cover as that analysis. Keep privilege assessment distinct from an ordinary balancing exercise.

In the fictional contract-and-payment file, first identify any contract-register information required to be publicly available. Confirm the contract category, applicable publication obligations and exclusions. The invoice, bank statement and analysis report each need their own access assessment. Their presence in a government purchasing file does not automatically make them open-access information.

Apply NSW third-party consultation requirements where the statutory criteria are met. Record the objection and why it changes, or does not change, the assessment. Provide the required notices and respect review-related restrictions on giving access.

The IPC’s review-rights guidance identifies internal review, Information Commissioner review and NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal review. Availability depends on the decision and applicant. An access applicant need not always seek internal review first. Different rules apply to third-party objectors and decisions made by a Minister or principal officer.

The Information Commissioner makes recommendations. The tribunal has a separate review role.

Prepare for Review and Preserve the Underlying File

Retain the original request, search log, unaltered documents, consultation material and decision record together. Preserve the access copy separately, with its release record. Apply the agency’s records-retention obligations alongside any litigation or investigation hold.

For Commonwealth matters, identify the available internal review and Information Commissioner review routes for the particular decision. Give the recipient the actual application method and time limit in the notice. Keep NSW review advice tied to GIPA instead.

Before issuing the decision, reconcile every scheduled record to its outcome and every deletion to its legal basis. If a cited source record is missing, reopen the search before describing the schedule as complete. If a redaction leaves information recoverable, withhold that access copy until the defect is fixed.

An access decision determines access rights. It does not decide whether a disputed payment proves misconduct. Preserve favourable and adverse material so the access review and the underlying financial investigation can each proceed on the complete record.