Freedom of Information (FOI)

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the “Act”) gives any person the right to request information in document form held by Ministers, state government departments, local councils, most semi-government organisations and statutory authorities, public hospitals and community health centers. 

The Act gives any person the right to:

• Access documents about your personal affairs and the activities of government organisations
• Request that incorrect or misleading information held by an organisation about you be amended or removed. 

Documents covered under the Act are: 

• Documents created by the organisation or documents supplied to the organisation by an external organisation or individual not older than 1 January 1989; and
• Documents about your personal affairs, regardless of the age of the documents. 

A ‘document’ includes email, typed or written correspondence, memo, report, map, film, diary, microfiche, photograph, computer disc, tape recording and videotape.

What you cannot access

Not all documents are automatically available.
The Act allows Council to refuse access to certain documents or information.  These documents or information are often called ‘exempt’ documents.
In some cases, you may be refused access to an entire document and in some cases, you may be given access to a document with exempt information deleted.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, you may not be able to access:

• Cabinet documents
• Some internal working documents
• Documents covered by legal professional privilege, such as legal advice
• Documents containing personal information about other people, (including names , address or other contact details)
• Documents containing information provided to Council in confidence
• Documents containing commercially sensitive information provided to Council by a business
• Documents which are covered by secrecy provisions in other legislations

This information should not deter you from asking for access as each document is assessed on its own merits before a decision is made.

Do I have to go through FOI to obtain the document I want?

We publish certain information and documents on our website, with some additional information and documents available upon request without the need for you to make a request under the Act. 

Generally, requests for documents must be handled through the FOI process. However, there are exceptions. Where possible, Council will direct you to another channel to obtain the documents you are seeking. 

Documents you can obtain without submitting an FOI request include documents that are:-

• publicly available on our website (such as Council meeting minutes, and other documents listed in Council’s public Transparency Policy and Part II Statement);
• available for purchase (such as Building and Occupancy Permits (where you are the owner of the relevant property or you have consent of the owner), records of food premises registrations, property searches and title information)
• available for inspection;
• available under an informal release scheme; or

Your own personal information such as:-

• Your personal details held on a Council database such as rates information
• Any correspondence you have submitted to Council
• Any correspondence you have received from Council 

Before you make a request, you may wish to visit our website or contact us to see if the information you would like to access can be provided to you by telephone or email outside of the Act.

Providing information outside of the Act is called proactive and informal release. For more information on what proactive and informal release means, read the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s (OVIC) Proactive and Informal Release of Information – Guidance for the Public.

You can refer to Council’s Part II Statement available on our website for further information about documents that are publicly available.

If you cannot access information outside of the Act, please continue reading to learn how to make a valid freedom of information (FOI) request.

Can you provide me with answers to certain Council questions?

The FOI process is only able to provide documents – it cannot answer questions. If you have a specific question that requires a response, you should direct this to the relevant team or our customer service team. Examples of questions that cannot be answered through FOI:-

How do I make an FOI request to Council? 

Under section 17 of the FOI Act, a request must meet three requirements to be valid:

1. your request must be in writing;
2. you must provide sufficient information about the documents you are requesting to enable us to identify and locate relevant documents; and
3. you must pay the application fee, or if payment of the application fee would cause you hardship, you can request us to waive the fee in full or in part.

Visit OVIC’s website for more information on how to make a valid FOI request. (https://ovic.vic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/make-a-freedom-of-inform…) 

You can submit your request to Council via post, email or in person. You are encouraged to use the application form to expedite the process. 

Your request for documents 

Council holds many hundreds of thousands of documents covering a large period of time. It is important that a request satisfies criteria 2 above – that it contains as much detail and clarity as possible. The documents held by Council are also in many different forms – hard copy files, archived files, on computer servers, in various databases and from different departments. It is important you clearly state what you are requesting to enable a thorough and constructive search. Examples of inclusions that will assist in ensuring your application is sufficiently clear are matters such as date ranges, locations (or a particular area of distance from a location), subject matter the documents relate to and, where applicable, the types of documents.

The FOI officer will work with you to assist you in making a valid application, but if you are unable to satisfy criteria 2 as above, Council will not be able to process your application. 

It may be helpful to exclude certain documents or information from your request if it is not particularly necessary or relevant. This may allow us to process your request more quickly by potentially reducing the number of documents to assess or removing the requirement for us to consult with third parties. Please note these types of information may not be accessible under the Act: 

• information about complaints
• duplicate documents
• commercial information relating to third parties
• personal information relating to third parties

How much will my application cost?

There are two costs associated with making a request: 

• Application fee of $31.80 (from 1 July 2023)
• Access charges 

Application fee

The application fee is a non-refundable, fixed cost required under legislation. Council does not set or regulate this fee – it is regulated under Freedom of Information (Access Charges) Regulations 2014 with the fee units set each year by the Victorian government. This fee is required for Council to process your application. If you are experiencing financial hardship, you may apply for a fee waiver with your application. For Council to consider whether you may be eligible for a fee waiver, you will need to supply evidence with your application such as a government issued low-income card or evidence of unemployment. It is important to note that the waiver only covers the application fee – access charges will still be payable at decision.

Access Charges

Access charges may be applicable to your request. Access charges cover the search time spent by Council in retrieving the documents and any provision costs (photocopying or inspection). Documents delivered by email do not attract a provision cost. Notification of the access charges will be delivered to you with the decision. It may be necessary for you to pay an access charges deposit after you have submitted a valid request should the access charges be estimated to exceed $50.00 - you will be notified if this is required. 

Any other reasonable costs incurred by Council in providing access or a form other than photocopying. Access fees also apply to the creation of transcripts, large scale photocopying of plans, and creating documents if they cannot be provided in discrete form.

All fees and charges are exempt from GST and are set by the Act. You can pay the fee in person at any Council Service Centre or via post by cheque or money order.

What happens when Council receives my application?

Once the request has been assigned to the FOI officer, the application will be reviewed to ensure all required information has been supplied. Once the application is confirmed as valid, a written notification will be provided to you confirming this as well as the decision date. Council will provide you with a decision on or before the due date, unless an extension applies as explained below. The decision will be one of the following: 

• Release all the documents you have requested
• Release some of the documents you have requested and/or part of the documents you have requested (if you have consented to redaction of exempt parts of a document)
• Release none of the documents you have requested. 

In some cases, Council may not locate any documents relevant to your request. You will be advised of that decision if this is the case.

How long will my application take? 

The Act requires Council to deliver a decision within 30 calendar days of the valid request being received. The decision date may be adjusted/extended if a deposit is required to be paid or consultation is required with third parties. We can extend this time by up to 15 days if we need to consult with third parties whose information may be contained in the requested documents. We will let you know if this is going to happen. We may also extend the decision time in increments of up to 30 days with your agreement. 

If you are seeking information in relation to which consultation has taken place with an entity or individual due to potential exempt information, and a decision is made to release that information, we are required to notify the entity or individual of their right to appeal the decision to VCAT. The individual has 60 days in which to lodge their appeal with VCAT.

At the end of the 60 days, if no notification of an appeal has been received, Council will seek final confirmation from VCAT and: 

• If no appeal has been lodged – the document(s) can be released.
• If an appeal has been lodged – no document(s) will be released until the outcome is determined by VCAT.

I need the documents urgently – can you expedite the process? 

Whilst Council endeavours to deliver a decision prior to the due date, this is not always possible. The FOI process can be lengthy due to time spent searching for documents, assessing, making any agreed redactions, and any consultation required with third parties. Please bear this in mind when submitting a request, particularly where documents may be required by a particular date, as Council is unable to guarantee that documents will be provided by earlier than the decision date.

I want documents that shows someone else’s personal details. Can you provide these?

Privacy is a required consideration in the FOI process; Council has legislative obligations in relation to all personal information held. Council cannot disclose information relating to a third party’s personal affairs (name, address, date of birth, phone number and any other identifying/personal information) without consent from that party, where it would be unreasonable to do so. Accordingly, where a request is seeking information about someone else’s personal affairs, it will often not be possible for Council to grant access to that information.

Examples of requests where access may be refused due to privacy:

• “Documents about who complained about my property”
• “Council records of the property owner at 123 Smith Street”
• “Details of the owner of the dog in my street”

Can you create a document in a format I need?

Documents are released in original form – e.g., spreadsheet, screenshot, email print out and cannot be edited aside from redactions applied by the FOI officer. Efforts will be made to ensure a high-quality document is supplied, however, due to the variety of documents stored by Council, no guarantee on the quality can be made (e.g., Low resolution, smaller font, faded images etc.).  

In certain circumstances, if it appears from the request that the applicant is seeking information not already available in discrete form, Council can produce a written document containing that information. Considerations in relation to any applicable exemptions still apply.

What if I am not satisfied with the decision? 

Upon receipt of the decision, if you are not satisfied with the decision, you may seek a review from the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) here. Further information in relation to this process is provided in the decision advice.

Have any further questions?

If you require further assistance, please contact a member of the Compliance Team on 1300 367 700 or via email at foi@latrobe.vic.gov.au