Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1989 - SECT 29

    (1)     An applicant may make application, in writing, to the agency to which or the Minister to whom the applicant made a request seeking the total or partial remission of any charge paid by the applicant, or notified as being a charge that the applicant is liable to pay, in respect of that request or in respect of the provision of access to a document to which the request relates.

    (2)     Where an application is made under subsection (1), the agency or Minister—

        (a)     may remit the charge to which the application relates in whole or in part; and

        (b)     shall take all reasonable steps to enable the applicant to be notified of a decision on the application as soon as practicable but in any case not later than 28 days after the day on which the application was received by or on behalf of the agency or Minister.

    (3)     Without limiting the matters which the agency or Minister may take into account for the purpose of determining whether or not to remit a charge under subsection (2), the agency or Minister shall take into account—

        (a)     whether the payment of the charge or of any part of the charge would cause or has caused financial hardship to the applicant or to a person on whose behalf the application was made; and

        (b)     whether the document to which the applicant seeks access relates to personal information about the applicant or a person on whose behalf the application was made; and

        (c)     whether the giving of access is in the general public interest or in the interest of a substantial section of the public.

    (4)     Where—

        (a)     an application has been made to an agency or Minister under subsection (1); and

        (b)     notice of a decision on the application has not been received by the applicant within the period of 28 days commencing on the day on which the application was received by or on behalf of the agency or Minister;

the principal officer of the agency, or the Minister, as the case requires, shall be taken to have made, on the last day of that period, a decision refusing to make the total or partial remission of the charge to which the application relates that was sought in that application.

    (5)     In this section:

"charge" means a charge that an applicant is notified under section 28 that the applicant is liable to pay in respect of a request for access to a document or in respect of the provision of access to a document.