7.
holding, or performing the duties of, an office established by an enactment[1]. Whilst neither the Governor-General, the Council for the Order, nor the Office of the Official Secretary is "a prescribed authority", the Official Secretary is[2], and is therefore an "agency" for the purposes of the FOI Act.
16 The statutory obligations to give access to certain documents[3] and to publish certain information[4] are then qualified by specified exemptions. Relevantly, courts, specified tribunals and the Official Secretary are excluded from the statutory obligation to grant access to a document "unless the document relates to matters of an administrative nature."[5] In addition, a document of a Minister that is not an "official document of a Minister" is exempt from the operation of the FOI Act[6].
17 Division 2 of Pt II of the FOI Act[7] identifies information which agencies must publish, which includes "operational information"[8], about which more will be said later. Part III[9] governs the access which must be given to documents. Relevantly, s 11 provides that a person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access to a document of an agency, other than an exempt document. A person seeking access to a document must make a "request"[10], which may be refused if the document cannot be found or does not exist[11] or if the work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably direct the resources
- ↑ FOI Act, s 4(1).
- ↑ FOI Act, s 4(1), par (c) of the definition of "prescribed authority".
- ↑ FOI Act, ss 11 and 11A(3).
- ↑ FOI Act, s 7A.
- ↑ FOI Act, ss 5, 6 and 6A(1).
- ↑ FOI Act, s 4(1), definition of "official document of a Minister" and s 11(1)(b).
- ↑ FOI Act, ss 8–8E.
- ↑ FOI Act, ss 7A and 8A.
- ↑ FOI Act, ss 11–31.
- ↑ FOI Act, ss 11A, 15, 16 and 17.
- ↑ FOI Act, s 24A.
