Office of the Information Comissioner
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From the information commissioner

Welcome to the final edition of OIC news for 2011. This year has seen many developments in right to information in New South Wales.

One of the biggest milestones has been the opening of the Information and Privacy Commission in January, forever changing the right to information and privacy system in this state to benefit the people of NSW. Since her appointment as the new Privacy Commissioner, Dr Elizabeth Coombs and I have been working to address issues of overlap between information access and privacy rights to assist both agencies and the community.

This topic has also been considered by agency practitioners as the subject of our most recent seminar. The seminar series has proved increasingly popular with agency staff, building on the networks we established during the Right to Information Roadshow after it wrapped up earlier in the year.

As we’ve continued our work to help agencies comply with their responsibilities under the Government Information (Public Access) Act (GIPA Act), our policy team has published four new guidelines and a number of new knowledge updates, in addition to creating a range of new fact sheets to help members of the public understand their information access rights.

We have also launched a consultation paper on fees and charges seeking feedback from agencies and the community on the costs of accessing government information in NSW. This consultation process closes on 31 January 2012, so I encourage anyone wishing to have their say on this important issue to do so before the deadline for submissions.

The GIPA case management and reporting tool continues to be a useful resource for agencies and refinements to the tool have made it even easier for agencies to manage their GIPA applications.

This year, the OIC’s casework team dealt with and closed a total of 359 cases, which included 270 reviews, 72 complaints, 15 Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) matters and two investigations. The team is now regularly publishing reports of OIC investigations. We continued making submissions to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal on matters involving access to government information.

It has also been a busy year for our Information and Assistance officers, who have responded to around 9000 calls and emails since January from agency staff and members of the public seeking guidance on right to information in NSW.

One of the highlights of 2011 has been the release of the NSW state plan, in particular its focus on improving government transparency by increasing access to government information, as stated in goal 31. We will continue to work with agencies to ensure we meet the state plan’s objective of achieving open government in NSW

As 2011 draws to a close, I wish you all a very safe and enjoyable Christmas and a happy new year. I look forward to working with you again in 2012.

In the meantime, should you require any information or assistance about the GIPA Act, please contact the OIC on free call: 1800 INFOCOM (1800 463 626) or email: oicinfo@oic.nsw.gov.au

The OIC will be closed from 26 to 28 December and on 2 January over the break. Otherwise our office will be open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
Promoting open government in NSW Promoting open government in NSW

A year for building relationships with the community

Since joining the Information and Privacy Commission in April, Community Liaison officer Gabe Morahan has had a whirlwind nine months meeting with community groups and people from disadvantaged backgrounds to discuss how to access government held information and the need to keep personal information safe.

Gabe has travelled thousands of kilometres crisscrossing New South Wales in her role, meeting with hundreds of people at community events, Aboriginal community information days, seniors' expos, migrant network meetings, homeless people’s activities and networking forums.

“My job is to build relationships, build networks, open channels of communications that allow me to talk to and educate people about their rights to access government information and about privacy issues,” Gabe said.

 
Assisting agencies and the public Assisting agencies and the public

New resources launched for agencies and the public

Information Commissioner Deirdre O’Donnell has launched a series of new resources to help agencies and the public with the topic of personal information under the GIPA Act.

Guideline 4 helps agencies understand how to apply personal information as a public interest consideration under the GIPA Act.

The OIC has also published a knowledge update for agencies on processing requests for personal information under GIPA.

 
Reviewing compliance with the GIPA Act Reviewing compliance with the GIPA Act

Requests for assistance continue to grow

In December, the OIC received 15 new matters. These consisted of nine requests for external reviews under Part 5, Division 3 of the GIPA Act, two complaints made under section 17 of the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 and four Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) matters.

As of 20 December 2011, there were 229 open matters, which included 11 complaints, 156 reviews, 59 ADT matters and three investigations.

Published reports a resource for agencies

The OIC is now regularly publishing review reports through the ‘reports’ link on the OIC home page.

These reports offer a valuable opportunity for right to information officers to consider how our review officers interpret GIPA matters.

In this article, the casework team shares a summary of three recently published reports:

 
Feedback on right to information reforms Feedback on right to information reforms

Seminar hits the mark

Participants in the first-ever Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) seminar on the overlap between information access and privacy have praised the format and content of the event.

Project manager Justine McHarg said feedback collected through surveys following the event showed the majority of participants were happy with the seminar.

“We had 46 attendees with an overall high satisfaction rate of 91 per cent,” Ms McHarg said.

 
 
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Office of the Information Commissioner NSW
Level 11, 1 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2000 | Phone: 1800 INFOCOM (1800 463 626)
Email: oicinfo@oic.nsw.gov.au | Web: http://www.oic.nsw.gov.au
 
 
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