Freedom of Information - Screen Australia

Your rights

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives any person the right to:

access copies of documents (except exempt documents) we hold
ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading
seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to see any document that we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

Documents available outside the FOI Act

You can get certain information, including personal information we hold about you, without following a formal process under the FOI Act. These include assessments of applications you have made to Screen Australia.

You should also check the information we have published under the Information Publication Scheme and FOI disclosure log to see if what you are seeking is already available.

How to make a request

Your request must:

be in writing
state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
provide information about the document(s) to assist us to process your request
provide an address for reply.

You can send your request:

By post:
FOI Contact Officer
Screen Australia
GPO Box 3984
Sydney NSW 2001

By email: [email protected]

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on 02 8113 1011 or by email at [email protected].

What you can expect from us

We will confirm receipt within 14 days of receiving your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days of receiving your request unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we may need to consult them, which could extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

We may refuse to process your request if a practical refusal reason exists. This may include:

if the request is unclear and we can’t identify the documents;
the request is too large and processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert Screen Australia resources from its other operations.

Please be mindful that Screen Australia does not have a dedicated freedom of information team and complex requests may require Screen Australia to consult with you regarding your request. Before making a practical refusal decision, Screen Australia will consult with you to try to clarify or narrow the scope of your request so that it can instead process the request.

Fees and charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.

There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you. However, processing charges may apply to other requests. The most common charges are:

Search and retrieval: time we spend searching for or retrieving a document
Charge: $15.00 per hour

Decision making: time we spend in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions
Charge: First five hours: Nil
Subsequent hours: $20 per hour

Transcript: preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium
Charge: $4.40 per page of transcript
Photocopy $0.10 per page

Inspection: supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at our premises
Charge: $6.25 per half hour (or part thereof)

Delivery: posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request
Charge: Cost of postage or delivery

Request Type	Description	Charge
Search and retrieval	time we spend searching for or retrieving a document	$15.00 per hour
Decision making	time we spend in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions	First five hours: Nil Subsequent hours: $20 per hour
Transcript	preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium	$4.40 per page of transcript $0.10 per photocopy page
Inspection	supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at our premises	$6.25 per half hour (or part thereof)
Delivery	posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request	Cost of postage or delivery

If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.

You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.

If you disagree with our decision

When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.
You can ask for the decisions to be reviewed:

if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
if we impose a charge
if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Internal review

You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.

Information Commissioner Review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at oaic.gov.au

Complaints about Screen Australia

Screen Australia welcomes feedback on the quality of is services, either verbally or by email.

Phone: + 61 2 8113 5800
Email: [email protected]

Screen Australia undertakes to keep complainants informed of the progress of their complaints and provide a speedy resolution of complaints.

If you are dissatisfied with Screen Australia’s complaint handling you may contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Toll free: 1300 362 072

More information

If you require more information, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on 02 8113 1011 or by email at [email protected]

Certain documents that we have released under the FOI Act can be obtained at our FOI disclosure log page. Information about our Information Publication Scheme can be obtained here.