Review of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009

The NSW Attorney General is reviewing the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 pursuant to section 130 of that Act and the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 pursuant to section 48 of that Act. The purpose of the review is to determine whether the policy objectives of the Acts remain valid and whether the terms of the Acts remain appropriate for securing these objectives.

The policy objective of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 is to open government information to the public by:

• authorising and encouraging the proactive public release of government information by agencies, and
• giving members of the public an enforceable right to access government information, and
• providing that access to government information is restricted only when there is an overriding public interest against disclosure, in order to advance an open, accountable, fair and effective system of Government.

The objective of the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 is to establish an independent champion of open Government.

The review will also consider the relationship between the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 and the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

The Acts can be viewed at the NSW legislation website. The Department of Justice invited interested individuals and organisations to make written submissions to the review.

Submissions are now closed.

The review is now complete. The completed report can be found here.

Browse and read the submissions to the Review of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.

Outcome

The Government Information (Public Access) Amendment Bill 2018 amends the GIPA Act 2009 based on the recommendations of the Report on the Statutory Review. The review concluded that the policy objectives of the GIPA Act remain valid and its provisions generally remain appropriate for achieving those objectives. However, the report also recommended a number of specific amendments to improve the operation of the GIPA Act, which are given effect in this bill.