Release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act)
The decision maker may decide not to release documents in response to an FOI access request for a number of reasons. These reasons fall into four main categories:
Exclusions
Intelligence agencies listened in Part 1, Division 1 of Schedule 2 of the FOI Act (including Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Office of National Assessment and documents that originate with or were received from these intelligence agencies), Parliament, the Governor-General and other authorities listed in Schedule 2 of the FOI Act are specifically excluded from the operation of the FOI Act.
Deferments and Refusals
An agency or Minister can defer providing a document requested under an FOI access request until the expiration of a certain period of time in certain cases; provide access to an edited copy of a document with exempt and irrelevant material removed; or refuse to provide the document, if the provision of the document would be unreasonably burdensome on the resources of the agency or the document cannot be found, does not exist or was not received.
Exemptions
A document that meets the criteria of one of the particular exemptions is wholly exempt and does not need to satisfy any additional test.
Conditional exemptions
In deciding whether or not to refuse to provide a document that fits within an FOI access request conditionally exempt documents are subject to a balancing test - the document must be disclosed unless the disclosure of the document, on balance, is contrary to the public interest.
In last three categories, the decision maker must provide a statement of reasons under section 26 if any aspect of an FOI request is refused or if access is deferred.
Exclusions
| Section | Exemption |
| 7 | Exemption of certain persons and bodies |
