Freedom of Information in South Australia: Fees, Deadlines and Review

South Australia's Freedom of Information Act 1991 gives a legally enforceable right to government documents, but it charges $44.70 to apply and again for an internal review, and a refused request goes to a choice between the Ombudsman or SACAT rather than a fixed appeal ladder.

Who decides, and under which Act

South Australia's freedom of information regime runs on the Freedom of Information Act 1991. Section 3(2)(b) frames the right as a legally enforceable right to be given access to documents held by government, and section 12 restates that right in operative terms. The word legally enforceable is the Act's own phrasing, not every Australian FOI Act uses it. The decision on an individual application is made by an accredited FOI officer at the agency that holds the document, a formally designated role under section 4, not by the Ombudsman or a tribunal.

Schedule 2 removes a closed list of bodies from the Act altogether, including all Royal Commissions, the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption and the Office for Public Integrity, the Auditor-General, the Attorney-General's criminal law enforcement functions, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and notably the Ombudsman's own office, which is otherwise the main external review body under this same Act. Courts and tribunals sit outside the Act in a more complete way than in some other states: section 6 says neither a court nor a tribunal, nor its registry staff handling judicial-function matters, counts as an agency at all. A separate exemption clause in Schedule 1 can still apply to judicial-function material held by an agency that is otherwise covered, layering a document-level exemption on top of the blanket exclusion. For the file itself, see Court Records in Australia and its South Australia page.

Before you apply: informal release

Nothing found in the Act names a distinct informal-release pathway, unlike some other Australian regimes. Section 3(3) preserves an agency's general ability to give access outside the Act where it is proper and reasonable to do so, and the government's own guidance describes only the formal written-application path, whether by online form, downloadable form or letter. Treat South Australia as not having a branded informal-access step distinct from that general permissive provision, though this is based on what the guidance does describe rather than a page that expressly rules an informal pathway out.

Making a valid application

Section 13 sets the checklist: the application must be in writing, state that it is made under the Act, be accompanied by the application fee, give enough information to identify the document, give an Australian address for notices, and be lodged at an agency office. An applicant can also request a particular form of access. If an application does not identify the document clearly enough, section 15 requires the agency to try to help before refusing to accept it. If a document is held by, or more closely connected to, a different agency, section 16 lets the receiving agency transfer the application.

The government's own guidance for applicants notes they may also be asked to provide evidence of their identity, though this reads as agency practice rather than a specific numbered requirement in the Act text itself, so it is worth confirming directly with the agency handling a particular request.

Fees and charges from July 2026

South Australia's fees reset each year under a separate Freedom of Information (Fees) Notice made under the Legislation (Fees) Act 2019, prescribing the amounts payable for the purposes of the FOI Act; the FOI Act's own text has not been amended since 2021, and its section 53 carries the Act's general fee machinery such as waivers and the hardship rules. The current Freedom of Information (Fees) Notice 2026, published in the South Australian Government Gazette and effective 1 July 2026, sets the application fee at $44.70. Processing charges for a document containing the applicant's own personal information carry no charge for the first two hours, then $16.90 per subsequent 15 minutes; any other application is charged $16.90 per 15 minutes from the start, with no free allowance. Additional charges apply for photocopying at $0.30 a page, a written transcript at $10.00 a page, and the actual cost of copying other media or of postage and delivery.

An internal review costs the same $44.70 again, refunded only if the agency varies or reverses its original decision in the applicant's favour. That is a different rule from a state where internal review is free by default. Amendment applications, covered below, carry no fee at all. The Act requires the regulations to provide a waiver or reduction for financial hardship or a concession card, and a Member of Parliament can access documents without charge unless the estimated work exceeds a set threshold, currently $1,000. An applicant unhappy with a fee decision can ask the agency itself to review it for free, and if still dissatisfied can ask the Ombudsman for a narrower review of the fee alone, separate from a full review of the access decision.

How long a decision takes

Section 14(2) requires an application to be dealt with as soon as practicable and in any case within 30 days of being received, and the same 30-day period applies to amendment applications. If the agency does not decide within that time, or any extended period, it is taken to have refused access. Extensions are handled differently from some other states: rather than an external commissioner granting more time, the agency's own principal officer can extend the period where the request covers a large search or requires third-party consultation that cannot reasonably finish within 30 days, provided the applicant is notified in writing within 20 days with the reasons and the applicant's review rights.

What is exempt

Schedule 1, titled Exempt documents, is organised into three parts rather than one flat list: restricted documents, which get closed-hearing treatment if a SACAT review is ever needed; documents requiring consultation with an affected third party before a decision; and a general list of other exempt document categories. Headline categories include Cabinet and Executive Council documents, documents affecting law enforcement and public safety, documents affecting inter-governmental or local government relations, documents affecting a person's personal affairs, documents affecting business affairs, internal working documents, documents subject to legal professional privilege, and documents relating to judicial functions. The Act's general interpretive principle in section 3A directs a decision maker to favour disclosure as far as possible without breaching privacy, though it was not confirmed here whether every individual clause carries its own separate public-interest override the way some clauses do in other states.

If you're refused: Ombudsman or SACAT, not both

Internal review is available first, lodged within 30 days, with the agency having 14 days to decide or being deemed to have confirmed the original decision. Internal review is not available if the original decision was made by, or at the direction of, the agency's own principal officer.

Beyond internal review, the Act sets up a choice of forum rather than a fixed sequence. An applicant can apply to the Ombudsman within 30 days of the internal review decision, or of the original decision if no internal review was available, and that review is free. Alternatively, an applicant can apply directly to SACAT instead of going to the Ombudsman at all, or can go to SACAT after an Ombudsman decision if still dissatisfied. What an applicant cannot do is go the other way: once a SACAT review has started, the Ombudsman route for that same matter is permanently closed. Neither the Ombudsman nor SACAT can order access to a document that is genuinely established to be exempt. An agency itself, rather than an applicant, can only reach SACAT with SACAT's own permission, and only on a question of law.

Correcting your own records

Part 4 gives a person to whom access has already been given a right to apply for amendment of their own personal affairs information, if the agency uses it for administrative functions and the person believes it is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading. The application has to be in writing, identify the document, state the claimed defect, and be accompanied by any correcting information. An agency can refuse if satisfied the record is not materially defective, if the application itself is inaccurate, or if a separate amendment process exists under another law. If refused, the applicant can instead require a notation be added recording the claimed defect, which the agency must attach whenever it later discloses that information to someone else. There is no fee for an amendment application, a notation request, or the internal review of an amendment refusal, and the agency has 30 days to decide.

Proactive disclosure

Part 2 of the Act requires every agency to publish an up-to-date information statement at intervals of no more than 12 months, describing its structure and functions, how those functions affect the public, how the public can participate, the kinds of documents it usually holds, and how to apply for access or amendment, including a designated contact officer. Agencies must separately identify their own policy documents and make both the statement and those documents available for inspection and purchase.

What this Act does not cover

This Act reaches only South Australia's own state and local government agencies, not federal agencies under the Commonwealth's separate Freedom of Information Act 1982, and not another state's agencies. A court or tribunal's judicial-function material sits outside the Act entirely under section 6, and a separate document-level exemption can apply to related material an agency does hold; see Court Records in Australia for the court's own process. A person's own hospital record overlaps with the state's health-records framework rather than running purely through this Act; see Medical Records in Australia. A police check runs through South Australia Police's own process, covered at Background Checks in Australia, and a land title search runs through the state's land titles office, covered at Property Records in Australia. For how the nine Australian freedom of information regimes compare, see Freedom of Information in Australia.