Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Freedom of Information Act 1982 - SECT 28

Cabinet documents

28. Cabinet documents



(1) A document is an exempt document if it is-

   (a)  the official record of any deliberation or decision of the Cabinet;

   (b)  a document that has been prepared by a Minister or on his or her
        behalf or by an agency for the purpose of submission for consideration
        by the Cabinet;

   (ba) a document prepared for the purpose of briefing a Minister in relation
        to issues to be considered by the Cabinet;

   (c)  a document that is a copy or draft of, or contains extracts from, a
        document referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (ba); or

   (d)  a document the disclosure of which would involve the disclosure of any
        deliberation or decision of the Cabinet, other than a document by
        which a decision of the Cabinet was officially published.

(2) Subsection (1) shall cease to apply to a document brought into existence
after the day of commencement of this section when a period of ten years has
elapsed since the last day of the year in which the document came into
existence.

(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to a document referred to in a paragraph of
that subsection to the extent that the document contains purely statistical,
technical or scientific material unless the disclosure of the document would
involve the disclosure of any deliberation or decision of the Cabinet.

(4) For the purposes of this Act, a certificate signed by the Secretary to the
Department of Premier and Cabinet certifying that a document as described in a
request is or would, if it existed, be one of a kind referred to in a
specified paragraph of subsection (1), establishes that the document is or
would, if it existed, be an exempt document.

(5) The Ombudsman may not conduct an investigation in respect of a certificate
under subsection (4) or a question whether a document is of a kind referred to
in subsection (1) or a decision to sign such a certificate.

(6) Nothing in Part V applies to a document to which a certificate under
subsection (4) applies.



(7) In this section-

   (a)  Cabinet includes a committee or sub-committee of Cabinet;

   (b)  a reference to a document includes a reference to a document whether
        created before or after the commencement of section 12 of the Freedom
        of Information (Amendment) Act 1993.