Right to Information
Annual Report
On the Administration of the
Right to Information Act 2009
for the period
1 July 2011 – 30 June 2012
Presented to both Houses of Parliament pursuant to section
53 of the Right to Information Act 2009
Department of Justice
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
Level 14 110 Collins Street Hobart
PO Box 825 HOBART Tas 7001
The Hon Brian Wightman MP
Attorney- General
Minister for Justice
Annual Report on the Administration of the Right to Information Act 2009 for the year ended 30 June 2012
In accordance with the requirements of section 53 of the Right to Information Act 2009 I have pleasure in presenting the Annual Report on the administration of the Right to Information Act 2009 for the year ending 30 June 2012.
This is the second annual report on the administration of the Right to Information Act. This Act replaced the Freedom of Information Act 1991 on 1 July 2010.
Simon Overland
Secretary
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: OPERATION OF THE ACT 1
Object of the Act 1
Application of the RTI Act to Departments, Councils and Public Authorities 1
Decision Makers 2
Continuation of Reporting 3
CHAPTER TWO: APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AND DECIDED 4
Key Statistics and Trends 4
Key Statistics 4
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined - Summary 5
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined - Government Departments 5
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined - Councils 6
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined – Public Authorities 7
CHAPTER THREE: OUTCOMES OF APPLICATIONS 8
Determinations made on applications for information 8
Outcome of Applications - Summary 8
Outcome of Applications - Government Departments 9
Outcome of Applications - Councils 9
Outcome of Applications – Public authorities 11
CHAPTER FOUR: REASONS FOR REFUSAL 12
Use of exceptions and other refusals 12
Exceptions and Other Refusals 12
Exceptions and Other Refusals - Government Departments 13
Exceptions and Other Refusals - Councils 13
Exceptions and Other Refusals - Public authorities 14
Exemptions claimed - Summary 16
Exemptions claimed - Councils 17
Exemptions claimed - Public authorities 17
CHAPTER FIVE: TIMEFRAMES FOR DECISIONS 18
Time Taken to Complete Requests – Summary 18
Time Taken to Complete Requests - Government Departments 18
CHAPTER SIX: REVIEW OF DECISIONS 21
Internal Reviews 21
Internal Reviews - All Departments, Authorities and Councils 21
External Reviews 22
Ombudsman Reviews – Requests Received and Determined 23
Ombudsman Reviews - Summary of Decisions on Formal Reviews 23
Ombudsman Reviews – Government Departments 24
Ombudsman Reviews – Councils 24
Ombudsman Reviews - Public Authorities 24
CHAPTER SEVEN: ADMINISTRATION OF RIGHT TO INFORMATION 25
Appendix 1: Government Departments as at 30 June 2011 26
Appendix 2: Councils as at 30 June 2010 26
Appendix 3: Public authorities as at 30 June 2011 26
CHAPTER ONE: OPERATION OF THE ACT
Object of the Act
The underlying purpose of the Right to Information Act 2009 are found in s 3 of the Act. The section reads as follows:
3.Object of Act
(1) The object of this Act is to improve democratic government in Tasmania–
(a) by increasing the accountability of the executive to the people of Tasmania; and
(b) by increasing the ability of the people of Tasmania to participate in their governance; and
(c) by acknowledging that information collected by public authorities is collected for and on behalf of the people of Tasmania and is the property of the State.
(2) This object is to be pursued by giving members of the public the right to obtain information held by public authorities and Ministers.
(3) This object is also to be pursued by giving members of the public the right to obtain information about the operations of Government.
(4) It is the intention of Parliament–
(a) that this Act be interpreted so as to further the object set out in subsection(1); and
(b) that discretions conferred by this Act be exercised so as to facilitate and promote, promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost, the provision of the maximum amount of official information.
The Act thus is intended to improve the operation of democracy in the State by increasing the accountability of Government to the people, and by increasing the ability of the people to participate in government decision-making. The underlying principle is that the information held by Tasmanian public authorities of all kinds belongs to the people of the State, and has been collected for them and on their behalf.
As s 3(4) states, the Act is to be interpreted so as to further its objectives. The subsection also states Parliament's intention that decisions under the Act should be made with a view to facilitating the provision to the public of the maximum amount of information, quickly and as cheaply as is reasonably possible.
In line with the title to the Act and with s 7 of the Act - a section which is central to the Act's operation - s 3 speaks of "a right to obtain information about the operations of Government". This statutory right has been created to assist in the better working of democracy, and should be seen as part and parcel of our democratic system of government. The administration of the Act, including the making of decisions under the Act as to whether information requested under it is or is not released, is to be approached in this spirit.
Application of the RTI Act to Departments, Councils and Public Authorities
Section 5 includes a definition of ‘public authority’, being the organisations to which the Act applies:
"public authority" means–
(a) an Agency, within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000; or
(b) the Police Service; or
(c) a council; or
(d) a statutory authority; or
(e) a body, whether corporate or unincorporate, that is established by or under an Act for a public purpose; or
(f) a body whose members, or a majority of whose members, are appointed by the Governor or a Minister of the Crown; or
(g) a Government Business Enterprise within the meaning of the Government Business Enterprises Act 1995; or
(h) a council-owned company; or
(i) a State-owned company;
This definition is wider than was used in the Freedom of Information Act 1991, and specifically catches all Government owned businesses.
Section 6 provides that the Act does not apply to certain bodies or organisations, but that the exemption is limited:
(1) This Act does not apply to information in the possession of the following persons or public authorities, or in the possession of a person whose services are provided or procured for the purposes of assisting the person or public authority, unless the information relates to the administration of the relevant public authority:
(a) the Governor;
(b) a court;
(c) a tribunal;
(d) the Integrity Commission;
(e) a judge;
(f) an associate judge;
(g) a magistrate;
(h) the Solicitor-General;
(i) the Director of Public Prosecutions;
(j) the Ombudsman;
(k) the Auditor-General;
(l) the State Service Commissioner;
(m) the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner;
(n) the Public Guardian;
(o) the Health Complaints Commissioner;
(p) Parliament;
(q) a Member of Parliament.
An exemption also applies to the Law Society of Tasmania in relation to the performance and exercise of the Society's functions and powers relating to trust accounts and trust monies and also disciplinary proceedings.
Review of the Freedom of Information Act 1991
In December 2008 the Government announced that it would review the Freedom of Information Act 1991 with the intent of creating legislation which was more pro-active in providing Government held information to the public.
The new Act, the Right to Information Act 2009 (the RtI Act) replaced the Freedom of Information Act 1991. The RtI Act, the repeal of the FoI Act and related amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act 2004 (the PIP Act) were passed by Parliament in November 2009 and came into effect on 1 July 2010.
Interaction with Personal Information Protection Act 2004
One consequence of the 2009 amendments is that requests relating to personal information will not be dealt with under the RtI Act but under the PIP Act.
Decision Makers
Decisions in respect of requests under the RtI Act for the provision of information or for amendment of information are to be to be made by the responsible Minister, the principal officer of the public authority or a delegated officer.
Under s 21 of the Act, the responsible Minister and the principal officer of each public authority are automatically designated as decision makers. Section 24 allows the Minister or principal officer of a public authority to delegate decision making powers.
Continuation of Reporting
The Right to Information Act 2009 has a different scheme for annual reporting and the criteria for applying exemptions or denying access to information are not identical to those in the FoI Act. However, in some tables, comparable FoI statistics from the last FoI reporting period have been included in this Report to provide some continuity of data.
CHAPTER TWO: APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AND DECIDED
Key Statistics and Trends
The change in process from FoI to RtI that requires each application to be accepted instead of being automatically dealt with appears to have led to a 50% fall in decisions. This means the proactive release aspect of the new Act is achieving the intended outcome – people are able to access information freely, leading to drop in the need for formal assessed applications. In the 2011/2012 year 97% of the applications accepted were determined, meaning those that are accepted are being dealt with in a timely fashion.
It is also worth noting that in 2010/2011, 21% of the determined applications led to a refusal or the information was exempt from release under the Act: in 2011/2012, this was only 12%.
The Ombudsman received 41 applications for review under RtI in the 2011-12 reporting period. Of the 30 RtI applications, 14 were resolved formally and further 14 were resolved without the need for a formal decision.
Table 1
Key Statistics
Total Number of: / 2009/10(FoI) / 2010/11
(RtI) / 2011/12
(RtI)
Applications accepted / 2047 / 1245 / 961
Applications determined / 1653 / 1041 / 938
Applications that took less than 20 working days / 1299 / 753 / 637
Applications that took more than 20 working days / 354 / 259 / 296
Applications that included a negotiated extension / 61 / 86 / 84
Applications that included an Ombudsman’s extension / - / Nil / 1
Applications granted in full / 605 / 446 / 422
Applications granted in part / 792 / 306 / 316
Applications refused/exempted / 88 / 224 / 117
Main sections under which applications was refused/exempted / ss.9 & 30* / ^s.30 s.36 / ^s.30 s.36
Applications for internal review determined / 52 / 40 / 61
Applications for external review determined / 43 / 7 / 14
* s.9 FoI Act: ‘Information already available’, s.30 FoI Act: ‘Information affecting personal privacy’.
^ s.30 RtI Act: ‘Information relating to enforcement of the law‘, s.36 RtI Act: ‘Personal information of a person’.
Table 2 below shows that by far the majority of the 961 RtI applications accepted during 2011/2012 were made to Government Departments. Departments accounted for 77%, Councils for 14% and Public Authorities for 9% of accepted applications.
Table 2
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined - Summary
Agency / Application Received(RtI) / Application Accepted
(RtI) / Application
Determined
(RtI) / Application Received
(RtI) / Application Accepted
(RtI) / Application
Determined
(RtI)
2010/11 / 2010/11 / 2010/11 / 2011/12 / 2011/12 / 2011/12
Government Departments / 1074 / 989 / 805 / 860 / 746 / 731
Councils / 132 / 127 / 122 / 136 / 132 / 127
Public authorities / 146 / 129 / 114 / 96 / 83 / 80
TOTALS / 1352 / 1245 / 1041 / 1092 / 961 / 938
Government Departments
Of the 746 requests accepted by Departments in 2011/2012, half were accepted by one Department (see Table 3). Police and Emergency Management accepted 371 requests (50% of the total). The next highest total was Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment with 92 accepted requests (12% of the total).
Table 3
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined - Government Departments
Department / Application Received(RtI) / Application Accepted
(RtI) / Application
Determined
(RtI) / Application Received
(RtI) / Application Accepted
(RtI) / Application
Determined
(RtI) /
2010/11 / 2010/11 / 2010/11 / 2011/12 / 2011/12 / 2011/12
Economic
Development
Tourism and the Arts / 54 / 40 / 36 / 19 / 16 / 14
Education / 42 / 42 / 32 / 40 / 36 / 37
Health & Human Services / 110 / 89 / 61 / 85 / 70 / 80
Infrastructure, Energy & Resources / 64 / 59 / 45 / 77 / 28 / 27
Justice / 86 / 74 / 53 / 58 / 58 / 51
Police & Emergency Management / 464 / 443 / 394 / 405 / 371 / 364
Premier & Cabinet / 89 / 89 / 64 / 47 / 47 / 65
Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment / 116 / 116 / 88 / 93 / 92 / 65
Treasury & Finance / 49 / 37 / 32 / 36 / 28 / 28
TOTALS / 1074 / 989 / 805 / 860 / 746 / 731
Councils
Applications accepted by four councils – George Town, Hobart, Launceston and Northern Midlands – represented 62% of all requests received by councils in 2011/2011. Hobart alone was responsible for 35% of the total.
Apart from the four councils mentioned above, the number of requests accepted by individual councils remains low, with only four other councils accepting 5 or more requests. Seven councils received no requests in the reporting year, and one council failed to submit any statistics.
Table 4
Applications Received, Accepted and Determined - Councils
Council / Application Received(RtI) / Application Accepted
(RtI) / Application
Determined
(RtI) / Application Received
(RtI) / Application Accepted
(RtI) / Application
Determined
(RtI) /
/ 2010/11 / 2010/11 / 2010/11 / 2011/12 / 2011/12 / 2011/12 /
Break O'Day Council / 6 / 5 / 3 / 5 / 4 / 3
Brighton Council / 6 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 / 5
Burnie City Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / 2 / 2 / 2
Central Coast Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil
Central Highlands Council / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1
Circular Head Council / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1
Clarence City Council / 2 / 2 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 3
Derwent Valley Council / 3 / 3 / 3 / 7 / 7 / 7
Devonport City Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / 2 / 2 / 2
Dorset Council / 1 / 1 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 2
Flinders Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil
George Town Council / 6 / 6 / 4 / 9 / 9 / 9
Glamorgan/Spring Bay Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / 1 / 1 / 1
Glenorchy City Council / 7 / 7 / 7 / 5 / 5 / 2
Hobart City Council / 53 / 53 / 53 / 46 / 46 / 45
Huon Valley Council / 6 / 4 / 4 / 5 / 3 / 2
Kentish Council / 1 / 1 / 1 / Nil / Nil / Nil
King Island / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil
Kingborough Council / 5 / 4 / 4 / 5 / 5 / 5
Latrobe Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / 1 / 1 / 1
Launceston City Council / 11 / 11 / 11 / 19 / 19 / 18
Meander Valley Council / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil / Nil
Northern Midlands Council / 4 / 4 / 4 / 8 / 8 / 8
Sorell Council / 11 / 11 / 10 / 3 / 2 / 2
Southern Midlands Council / (a) / - / - / - / - / -
Tasman Council / 4 / 4 / 4 / Nil / Nil / Nil
Waratah-Wynyard Council / 2 / 2 / 2 / 4 / 4 / 3
West Coast Council / (b) / - / - / Nil / Nil / Nil
West Tamar Council / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2
TOTALS / 132 / 127 / 122 / 136 / 132 / 127
Note: