What happens after I submit my application?

After we receive your application, we review it to make sure it meets the minimum requirements of the Right to Information Act. We will check the application fee is paid or if you are eligible for it to be waived.

If your application is compliant and does not have a ground for refusal (such as it being an unreasonable diversion of resources), your application will be accepted within 10 working days of being received.

If your application needs to be amended for any reason, we will contact you to discuss any changes needed.

We may need to transfer your request to a more appropriate public authority or minister. If that happens, we will let you know.

If it is possible to provide the information to you without an assessment, it will be provided to you actively.

Once your request has been accepted, all information relevant to your request will be located. We do this by contacting the relevant work group and asking them to undertake a search of all relevant places (including our record management system, emails and phones). We quality assure this search by also requesting our information management team to undertake a search of relevant systems.

We then assess this information against the Right to Information Act to see whether it can be provided to you. You are entitled to receive a decision within 20 working days on whether the information can be released to you or not. If your request is complex or is for a large amount of information, we may ask you to give us more time to complete the request.

If the information contains details about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time by another 20 working days.

If we determine that information cannot be provided because it is exempt information under the Right to Information Act, we will provide you with an explanation of why we have decided the information is exempt information.

When you receive a decision, you will be advised of your right to review the decision.

If we do not provide you with a decision within the timeframe allowed, you can apply to the Ombudsman for resolution of the matter.