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Freedom of Information Amendment (Improving Public Access to Information) Bill 2006 No , 2006 A Bill for An Act to amend the Freedom of Information Act 1989 to require an independent review of that Act to be carried out to improve public access to information; and for other purposes.
Freedom of Information Amendment (Improving Public Access to Clause 1 Information) Bill 2006 The Legislature of New South Wales enacts: 1 1 Name of Act 2 This Act is the Freedom of Information Amendment (Improving Public 3 Access to Information) Act 2006. 4 2 Commencement 5 This Act commences on assent. 6 3 Amendment of Freedom of Information Act 1989 No 5 7 The Freedom of Information Act 1989 is amended as set out in 8 Schedule 1. 9 4 Repeal of Act 10 (1) This Act is repealed on the day following the day on which this Act 11 commences. 12 (2) The repeal of this Act does not, because of the operation of section 30 13 of the Interpretation Act 1987, affect any amendment made by this Act. 14 Page 2
Freedom of Information Amendment (Improving Public Access to Information) Bill 2006 Amendment Schedule 1 Schedule 1 Amendment 1 (Section 3) 2 Sections 70 and 71 3 Insert after section 69: 4 70 Initial review of Act 5 (1) As soon as possible after the commencement of this section, the 6 Minister is to appoint one or more persons or a body (the 7 reviewer) to conduct an independent review of this Act to 8 determine whether the policy objectives of the Act remain valid 9 and whether the terms of the Act remain appropriate for securing 10 those objectives. 11 (2) The reviewer is not to be a Department or other Division of the 12 Government Service of New South Wales or the Head or a 13 member of staff of such a Division. 14 (3) Without limiting subsection (1), in conducting the review the 15 reviewer is to consider the following matters in particular: 16 (a) whether the rights of members of the public to obtain 17 access to information held by the Government are being 18 supported adequately by the provisions of this Act and by 19 their operation in practice, 20 (b) whether the objects of this Act would be more 21 appropriately served by the establishment of an 22 independent body to receive and determine freedom of 23 information applications and by a presumption that any 24 document to which access is sought is not an exempt 25 document within the meaning of this Act, 26 (c) any trends in the determination of applications under this 27 Act since the Act's commencement, 28 (d) the appropriateness of the grounds on which access to 29 documents may be refused under this Act and of the 30 exemption of certain bodies and offices from the operation 31 of this Act, 32 Page 3
Freedom of Information Amendment (Improving Public Access to Information) Bill 2006 Schedule 1 Amendment (e) the impact of technological change on 1 information-keeping practices in so far as those practices 2 are relevant to the objects and implementation of this Act, 3 (f) the interaction of this Act with other legislation of New 4 South Wales that makes provision with respect to access to 5 information (including the Privacy and Personal 6 Information Protection Act 1998, the Health Records and 7 Information Privacy Act 2002, the Local Government Act 8 1993 and the State Records Act 1998), 9 (g) the impact of piecemeal amendment of this Act since the 10 Act's commencement, 11 (h) the costs of dealing with applications under this Act and 12 the appropriateness of fees and other charges relating to 13 the lodgment and processing of those applications, 14 (i) the timeliness of the processing and determination of 15 applications under this Act. 16 (4) The reviewer is to commence the review as soon as possible after 17 being appointed under this section. 18 (5) The reviewer is to hold public hearings at locations throughout 19 New South Wales, and invite and consider public submissions, 20 on matters falling within the scope of the review. 21 (6) Within the period of 18 months after the appointment of the 22 reviewer the reviewer is to provide the Minister with a report on 23 the outcome of the review. 24 (7) The Minister is to cause the report to be tabled in each House of 25 Parliament as soon as practicable after the report is provided to 26 the Minister. 27 Page 4
Freedom of Information Amendment (Improving Public Access to Information) Bill 2006 Amendment Schedule 1 71 Further review of Act 1 (1) As soon as possible after the period of 5 years after the end of the 2 period of 18 months referred to in section 70 (6), the Minister is 3 to review this Act to determine whether the policy objectives of 4 the Act remain valid and whether the terms of the Act remain 5 appropriate for securing those objectives. 6 (2) A report on the outcome of the review is to be tabled in each 7 House of Parliament within 12 months after the end of that period 8 of 5 years. 9 Page 5
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