Freedom of Information gives a general right to individuals to request access to documents we hold.

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives any person the right to:

  • request access to copies of documents we hold
  • ask for records we hold containing personal information about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading, and
  • seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt under the FOI Act.

Before submitting your request you should also check the information we have published under the Information Publication Scheme and FOI disclosure log to see if what you are seeking is already publicly available.

FOI disclosure log

View our FOI disclosure log.

Making a request

Your request must:

  • be in writing
  • state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
  • provide sufficient information about the document(s) to enable us to process your request, and
  • provide an address to reply.

You can send your request in one of the following ways:

Via email to the following address: foi@futurefund.gov.au

Via post:

FOI Contact Officer

Future Fund Management Agency

Locked Bag 20010

Melbourne VIC 3001

Fees and charges

There is no application fee for making an FOI request. However, processing charges may apply. The most common charges are:

Activity item

Charge

Time we spend searching for or retrieving a document

 $15.00 per hour
Time we spend deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making decisions First five hours: Nil
Preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium $4.40 per page of transcript
Photocopying $0.10 per page
Supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at our premises $6.25 per half hour (or part thereof)
Posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request Cost of postage or delivery

 

If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.

You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.

What you can expect from us

We will confirm receipt of your request within 14 days of receiving it. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we may need to consult them and extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

If you disagree with our decision and internal reviews

When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.

You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

  • if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access  
  • if we impose a charge
  • if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request. However, we can apply for extra time through the Australian Information Commissioner.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party).

The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. If you disagree with the Information Commissioner’s decision, you may be entitled to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Commonwealth Ombudsman who may investigate our actions. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information

If you require more information or assistance, please contact the FOI Contact Officer on (03) 8656 6400 or by email at foi@futurefund.gov.au

More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at www.oaic.gov.au