Freedom of information

Application fee (for application for non-personal information)
$30

Staff time dealing with application, supervised access, photocopying, transferring information from tape etc (per hour or pro-rata for part of an hour)
$30

Photocopies (per A4 copy)
20cents

A0 to A3 (large format reproduction)
$ value based on A4 cost

Duplicating a tape, film or computer information plus deliver, packaging and postage
$ actual cost

Advance Deposits

When the agency provides an estimate of charges that exceeds $25, the agency can, in the same Notice of Decision document, ask the applicant to pay a deposit.

In response the applicant may request the agency to discuss alternatives for changing the application or reducing the estimated charge in exchange for the applicant waiving the requirement for the agency to deal with the application within the 45 day period.

• percentage of estimated charges payable 25%
• further percentage of estimated charge may be required 75%

Note:
No fees or charges for internal or external review (see later)

The City only applies these charges based upon the set regulations with the FOI Act.

Upon receiving a valid FOI application, an estimation will be made based on the information provided by the applicant, the available resources within the City to process the application and the charges listed above.

However, the City reserves the right to alter these estimated charges as more information about the application is learnt over time. Any alterations will be in the spirit and intent of the FOI Act and will be made at the lowest possible cost.

9.3 Notice of decision

The Notice of Decision document is sent out to the applicant at the earliest possible stage of the FOI application process. The purpose of this document is to:

• show true basis of the decision, and a full explanation of the decision;
• information about the application (to ensure the request is properly understood by the agency (the City));
• inform the applicant whether the information they request is available for them to view or have sent to them (e.g. either exempt from the FOI Act, whether the document can be found/no record of such document, contains confidential information/edited content, etc.);
• inform the applicant the validity of their application;
• inform the applicant what stage the application is at;
• set out in advance of any information retrieval any costs or deposits needed by the agency (the City) in searching for or reproducing the information in a format of their preference (if possible);
• to negotiate a time period based on the information requested and resources required getting it (negotiated between the agency (the City) and the applicant beyond the statutory 45 days);
• if any more information is required from the applicant