Main recommendations
The ALRC/ARC report recommends the creation of a statutory FOI Commissioner to monitor and improve the administration of the FOI Act and to provide assistance, advice and education to applicants and agencies about how to use, interpret and administer the Act.
Other recommendations include:
-
the revision of the Act's objects clause to promote a pro-disclosure interpretation of the Act;
-
the rationalisation of exemption provisions to apply only to information that there is a public interest in withholding; and
-
measures to ensure FOI charges are not inconsistent with the objects of the Act, with the scale of charges to be determined by FOI Commission with access to an applicant's personal information being free of charge.
The Australian Law Reform Commission and the Administrative Review Council concluded that the FOI Act should not apply to private sector or government businesses that are engaged predominantly in commercial activities in a competitive market, instead recommending the introduction of a national legislative scheme to provide information privacy protection in all sectors, including the private sector.