Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1989 - SECT 59

    (1)     Where a decision has been made in relation to a request to an agency otherwise than by the responsible Minister or principal officer of the agency, being—

        (a)     a decision refusing to grant access to a document in accordance with a request or deferring the provision of access to a document; or

        (b)     a decision, in relation to a charge (not being an application fee) in respect of a request for access to a document or in respect of the provision of access to a document—

              (i)     that the applicant is liable to pay the charge; or

              (ii)     as to the amount of the charge; or

              (iii)     not to remit all or part of the charge; or

        (c)     a decision not to remit all or part of an application fee in respect of an application under section 14 (1) or under this subsection;

the applicant may, within 28 days after the day on which that decision is notified to the applicant or within such further period as the principal officer of the agency allows, by application in writing to the principal officer of the agency, request a review of the decision in accordance with this section.

Note     A fee may be determined under s 80 (Determination of fees and charges) for this section.

    (2)     Subject to subsection (3), where an application for a review of a decision is made to the principal officer in accordance with subsection (1), the officer shall as soon as possible arrange for himself or herself or a person (not being the person who made the decision) authorised by the officer to conduct such reviews to review the decision and make a fresh decision.

    (3)     Subsection (1) does not apply to—

        (a)     a decision made on a review under this section; or

        (b)     a decision in relation to the provision of access to a document upon a request that is, under section 61 (1) or (3), to be taken to have been given.

    (4)     Section 25 applies to a decision made under this section.

    (5)     Where—

        (a)     a person requests a review of a decision in accordance with this section; and

        (b)     an application fee is determined under section 80 (Determination of fees and charges) for the request; and

        (c)     the request is not accompanied by the application fee, but is accompanied by an application for remission under section 30 (Remission of application fees) of the application fee;

the request for review is to be taken to be in accordance with this section unless and until the agency has taken all reasonable steps to notify the applicant that the fee is not to be remitted in full.