version of the legislation in place on 23 February 2023, the date of the Information Commissioner's decision. The provisions reproduced below are from that version of the legislation.
19 Section 4(1) of the FOI Act includes the following definitions:
agency means a Department, a prescribed authority or a Norfolk Island authority.
applicant means a person who has made a request.
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document of an agency: a document is a document of an agency if:
(a) the document is in the possession of the agency, whether created in the agency or received in the agency; or
(b) in order to comply with section 6C, the agency has taken contractual measures to ensure that it receives the document.
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official document of a Minister or official document of the Minister means a document that is in the possession of a Minister, or that is in the possession of the Minister concerned, as the case requires, in his or her capacity as a Minister, being a document that relates to the affairs of an agency or of a Department of State and, for the purposes of this definition, a Minister shall be deemed to be in possession of a document that has passed from his or her possession if he or she is entitled to access to the document and the document is not a document of an agency.
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request means an application made under subsection 15(1).
20 Part III of the FOI Act is entitled "Access to documents" and comprises ss 11 to 31. Sections 11 and 11A are important for present purposes. They provide:
11 Right of access
(1) Subject to this Act, every person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access in accordance with this Act to:
- (a) a document of an agency, other than an exempt document; or
- (b) an official document of a Minister, other than an exempt document.
(2) Subject to this Act, a person's right of access is not affected by:
- (a) any reasons the person gives for seeking access; or
- (b) the agency's or Minister's belief as to what are his or her reasons for seeking access.
