Freedom of Information Policy

The broad objective of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) is to give the public the right to access documents held by the Australian Government. As a prescribed authority under the FOI Act, Housing Australia is required to comply with this Act.  

The FOI Act gives members of the public the right to:  

• access copies of documents (except exempt documents) held by Housing Australia;  
• ask Housing Australia to change or annotate information if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading (where the information relates to the person making the request); and  
• seek a review of a decision not to allow access to a document or not to amend their personal records.  

While a member of the public can ask to access any document held by Housing Australia, Housing Australia can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Under Division 1, Part II of Schedule 2 of the FOI Act, documents in respect of Housing Australia’s commercial activities are exempt from the operation of the FOI Act. Exempt documents may also include documents relating to national security or documents containing material obtained in confidence.

An FOI request may be made to Housing Australia via:

• an email referring to the FOI Act sent to contact@housingaustralia.gov.au or  
• by a letter referring to the FOI Act, sent to Level 23, 420 George Street Sydney NSW 2000

Housing Australia processes FOI requests in accordance with the FOI Act and guidelines from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

There is no application fee for an FOI request made to Housing Australia.  However, in some instances, processing charges may apply. If this is the case, the FOI applicant will receive a written estimate prior to processing.

Housing Australia makes information available at the lowest reasonable cost and will reduce the cost of public access by publishing information on its website, especially information that is routinely sought by the public. Further details on Housing Australia’s compliance with the Information Publication Scheme is available here. 

FOI applicants have the right of a review of FOI decisions made by Housing Australia. The following options are available:

• Internal review
• Review by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Further information will be provided to FOI applicants in the FOI decision letter issued.  

Once an FOI decision has been provided to the applicant, the request and any documents released will be made available on the Housing Australia’s FOI Disclosure Log - see below.  

The disclosure log sets out Housing Australia’s compliance position under section 11C of the FOI Act.

The disclosure log is not exhaustive. For example, it does not include:

• documents of a personal or commercially valuable nature released under FOI where publishing that information would be unreasonable
• documents where access has been refused or which are exempt from release under FOI
• documents released outside the FOI framework

Documents published in response to an FOI requests may include internal working papers. The views expressed in these documents should not be considered as representing Housing Australia’s views or advice to government.

FOI Contact

Housing Australia’s FOI team can be contacted via email contact@housingaustralia.gov.au or written correspondence addressed to the FOI Officer, Level 23, 420 George Street Sydney NSW 2000.