Fact is: most of us journalists have - until recently - not been very imaginative with our use of Australia's FOI laws. But that's slowly changing as we begin to understand the law's strengths and weaknesses, and as a body of case law builds up from the many appeals that have been mounted on decisions refusing access to information.

It's also becoming a necessity to learn how to use FOI more effectively these days in investigative journalism because the Federal Police seem to get called in at the drop of a hat whenever documents are (illegally) leaked from Government Agencies. Public servants are understandably frightened for their jobs and discouraged from the more traditional route of leaking worrying secrets in a plain brown envelope.

As a search tool to trawl for general information on a subject or issue, FOI is more often than not completely hopeless. Rarely will a Department spend the huge amount of time it takes to process a broad FOI request without leaving the applicant with a huge bill at the end of it. You can find yourself paying big money for photocopies of newspaper clippings and other publicly available information and the embarrassing stuff can often be hidden under one of the many exemption sections in the Act anyway.

But, when it does work, FOI works extremely well with some specific Government documents - especially when you know the name of a 'hot' report that a public servant or politician has not released because it's just too embarrassing. [See our section on "The Art of Sanitary Leaking" located in How to blow the whistle.] This can backfire however. FOI sometimes acts to warn the Government of a potentially embarrassing disclosure and enables that department to begin extensive damage control well before the applicant finally gets his or her hands on the "hot" doc. The NSW Government did it to this reporter when we asked for all the NSW Treasury documents relating to the their financial concerns about the potential costs of the Sydney Olympics bid. Faced with the prospect of an appeal from its initial refusal to hand the documents over, the NSW Government dumped the whole lot (a pile over one metre high) in the State Parliament on the busiest day of the year. It meant that media able to do the deeper analysis of the documents, like us, were discouraged from doing so because every other media outlet picked the eyes out of the documents beforehand.

The best rule is that if there is a matter of public concern that needs publicising and you can't get a civic-minded public servant to leak the offending document to you then use the FOI laws. But don't expect them to deliver quickly or cheaply...

Australia has legislation for Federal Government Departments and Agencies and separate Acts for States and Territories. The following summary should help any willing FOI novice as a quick reference guide.

Australian Federal Government Departments and Agencies
Australia's Federal Government FOI Act has only been around since January 1984. It gives you the legal right to see and copy documents (including those containing personal information about yourself) held by Commonwealth Ministers, Departments and some Statutory Authorities. [For the sake of brevity, we'll call these all Agencies]. There's also a right to appeal against a decision not to grant access to a document or amend or annotate a personal record.

If the documents you want contain personal information about yourself then you've got a right to see them no matter how old they are! Otherwise the Act limits the right to seeing documents to documents no older than December 1 1977. (they can be older if you need them to understand another document you already have).

Documents include files, reports, computer printouts, e-mail, tapes or disks, map plans, photographs, microfiche, tape recordings, films or videotapes.

You can download the legislation for free from Comlaw's* excellent legal resource website.

For starters, you need to be very sure the Agency you're writing to has the information which is the subject of your request. Try ringing the bureaucrat in charge of that section directly and this is where the Australian Government Printing Service's excellent publication the "Commonwealth Government Directory" comes in handy. It publishes direct phone numbers for all senior bureaucrats in Government Agencies. Alternatively you can get the same information on-line through the 'Commonwealth Government Entry Point' *.

The postal address of the Agency you're FOIing can be from any of these sources, or the phone book. Generally you don't need to name the FOI officer. A letter addressed to the FOI Officer c/- [the Agency] will suffice but it is surprising how simple politenesses such as addressing your application with the name of the public servant handling your FOI is helpful in the long run.

You need to be as clear as possible in identifying the document you want and which agency has it. A friendly public servant could give you the name of the document, author and even an identifying number if possible. One very good way of tracking down the name of a potentially useful document is to use the "Indexed Lists of Departmental Files" database which we detail elsewhere on the Investigative Journalism Website.

Write a letter detailing what you want, attaching an address for correspondence, and enclosing a $A30 application fee. (Cheque or money order, send no cash). Ask the agency to give you an estimate of the charges, if any, that will apply (They normally will anyway).

Journalists should ask for fees and other charges to be waived on public interest grounds (the exercise of this discretion seems to depend on what the responsible bureaucrat had for breakfast and whether his or her political masters want you to get the relevant document in the first place). Remember be as specific as possible or be prepared for a rejection on the grounds that your request is too broad. It does cost Government Departments to do FOI processing, so the best trick is to use it for specific documents you know exist rather than embarking on a fishing expedition.

How to FOI in Australian States and Territories & Local Government
You're well advised to get a copy of the relevant legislation from each State or Territory's Government Printing Office in order to help you draft your application correctly. Once again you can get the addresses for each State/Territory or Local Government's Agency from the phonebook or, as you're already on-line, use the web to access the contact details directly from the official Australian Government's website pages:

For State Governments *,
for Territory Governments *, and
for Local Government *.

As you'll see below, there are some States and Territories that have embraced FOI without fear. They've found that liberalising the laws has improved Executive accountability without a flood of applications or costs. In particular we think the ACT and QLD have both got good bits in their FOI laws which should shame our Federal public service mandarins. It's especially worth acknowledging and praising Queensland's zero charge for the cost of processing an FOI - for surely it's the ridiculous charges for processing FOIs in some State and Federal Government jurisdictions that are the biggest single factor deterring journalistic exploitation of the FOI laws in Australia.