RTI Access and Amendment Applications

Anyone can apply to access information about the business of Council.

The information you can apply for is not without exceptions. The Right to Information Act provides Council with direction on what can and cannot be released to you. Some information may be exempt, while other information may not be in the public interest to release. The following fact sheets from the Office of the Information Commissioner provide further information on Exempt Information and the Public Interest

What is Exempt Information

What is the public interest

If you have had dealings with Council, you can also apply to see what personal information Council holds about you.

Types of personal information a council may hold

Also refer to applying for CCTV footage in the FAQ

Your options include:

• Download our digital form
• Request that a copy of our form is mailed to you
• Send us a request in writing.

To help us process applications quickly, we encourage you to use our application forms.

The total cost of applying for and receiving your information will vary depending on the volume of information and the method of access. If there are processing or access charges payable, we will provide you with a Charges Estimate Notice prior to the end of the processing period.

Concession card holders can apply for a waiver of processing and access charges only. The application fee is unable to be waived.

Application fee

Processing charge

Access charge

Once we have received a valid application, we will acknowledge your application and commence searching for the requested documents. In the event your application is not valid we will contact you to advise the actions to be taken to make the application valid.

The processing period for an application is 25 business days however there are circumstances which may extend this time such as:

• If you only provide a postal address an additional 5 business days is added to the processing period.
• If we are required to consult with a Third Party; an additional 10 business days is added to the processing period
• Upon issuing a Charges Estimate Notice; the time taken for you to respond to the notice. For example, if you respond 5 business days after receiving the notice, 5 business days are added to the processing period.
• If we request additional time, the time requested in the notice.

In any of the above circumstances you will receive correspondence providing advice of the additional time being added to the processing period.

Note: More than one of the above examples can apply to an application

Internal review

Anyone affected by our decision (ie. applicant or a consulted third party) can apply for an internal review. An Officer at least as senior as the original decision maker will review the officer’s decision. The decisions we cannot review internally are those that are:

• made on an internal review application
• made personally by an agency’s principal officer
• made by a healthcare professional appointed under section 30 or 31
• a deemed decision, because it is taken to have been made by the principal officer.

External review

If you are not satisfied with our decision (initial decision or internal review) you can apply for an external review by the Office of the Information Commissioner. Information on how to do this is provided in your decision notice, or https://www.oic.qld.gov.au/about/right-to-information/apply-for-external-review-of-a-decision-about-gov-information

If the information we provide contains incorrect personal information about youit can be corrected:

• via an Information Privacy Personal Information Amendment Application Form or
• by emailing us details of the required change together with certified copies that provide sufficient evidence of identity confirming the correct information. eg. marriage certificates, birth certificate, drivers licence, passport, statutory declaration of an individual who has known the applicant for at least one year.  (download the Qld Statutory Oath Declaration template from the Queensland Courts website)
• There are no charges applicable.

Council may refuse to amend the document because:

1. It is not satisfied:
   1. the personal information is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading; or
   2. the information sought to be amended is personal information of the applicant; or
   3. if the application is purportedly made by an agent – that the agent is suitably authorised to make the amendment application; or
2. the document does not form part of a functional record (a record available for use in the day to day or ordinary performance of Council).

Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable from the information or opinion:

1. whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
2. whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Personal information is held by Council if it is contained in a document in its possession, or under its control.

What you may receive as a “document” is quite broad and may include CCTV footage, body worn camera footage, audio, photos, data extracts, and physical / digital documents.

Council operates a Safe City Public Safety Surveillance program, and has more than 350 cameras located in popular open spaces throughout Ipswich (refer to the Safe City page for more information).

Availability of camera footage will depend on:

• the timing of your application, as all footage is automatically deleted after 14 days, unless we receive a prior application, and
• whether the requested footage has been officially released to or required by Police for their investigation and/or prosecution purposes. In this instance, providing footage to an applicant may interfere with or jeopardise Police efforts, In these circumstances the information would be considered exempt information under Schedule 3 s10 of the RTI Act..

There are limited circumstances in which you may obtain access to another person’s personal information:

• an agent authorised to act on someone’s behalf
• a parent   of a child under 18 (evidence of parent-child relationship is required)
• if you require the information to pursue a legal remedy  .

Accessing documents to pursue a legal remedy

Council may refuse access to information if it is not in the balance of the public interest. For more information, see What is the public interest - a guide for applicants

https://www.oic.qld.gov.au/guidelines/for-community-members/information-sheets-access-and-amendment/what-is-the-public-interest

Processing timeframes are subject to legislation, availability of the information, and completeness of the application. Whilst Council can endeavour to turnaround requests as soon as they are able, there is no guarantee that applications can be processed within an expedited manner.

If an applicant is in financial hardship, then they can request that processing and access charges are waived.

Applying for financial hardship as an individual

Not for Profit organisations granted financial hardship status

The RTI application fee cannot be waived, but must be refunded if:

• all the documents applied for contain the applicant’s personal information, or
• a deemed decision was made.

If an RTI application fee applies, and a portion of the documents include your personal information, processing charges for the personal documents will not be applied.