Outline of report
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) came into force on 1 December 1982. The FOI Act was intended to increase accountability of government and improve administration and decision-making by exposing these processes to public scrutiny. The FOI Act provides individuals with rights of access to government documents, including documents containing information about themselves.
The Commission's review of the FOI Act was conducted jointly with the Administrative Review Council. The principal purpose of the review was to determine whether the FOI Act had achieved the purposes and objectives it was designed to achieve and, if it had not, to recommend changes to improve its effectiveness. The review also considered whether the FOI Act should extend to the private sector.