Freedom of Information in Victoria: How to Request Government Records

Victoria's Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives every person a legally enforceable right to access documents held by a state agency, but the Act itself has no internal-review step: a refusal goes straight to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC).

Victoria sits alongside eight other jurisdictions in our Freedom of Information in Australia hub. Each state, territory and the Commonwealth runs its own separate FOI or RTI regime, and an application to one government does not reach another. This page covers how a Victorian FOI request actually works: who decides, how to apply, what it costs, how long it takes, and what happens if the agency says no.

Who Decides and Under Which Act

The governing law is the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic), No. 9859 of 1982, in its Authorised Version 114, incorporating amendments as at 1 May 2026. Section 3(1) states the Act's object is to extend as far as possible the right of the community to access information in the possession of the Government of Victoria, and section 3(2) directs it be interpreted to facilitate disclosure promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost. The operative right is section 13: every person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access to a document of an agency, other than an exempt document, or an official document of a Minister, other than an exempt document.

Section 5(1) defines an agency as a department, council, Gellung Warl or a prescribed authority; a Minister is covered separately through 'official document of a Minister.' The agency itself, not OVIC, is the first decision-maker on any request.

Two carve-outs matter for scope. Section 6 excludes a court or the holder of a judicial office, and court registry staff, from being treated as a prescribed authority or part of a department, but only in relation to judicial functions; a court's administrative records are still covered by the Act. Section 6AA is narrower and specific to Victoria: the Act does not apply to documents in OVIC's own possession to the extent they relate to a review, a complaint or an investigation, so a person cannot FOI the regulator's own file on their own case.

Informal Release First

Section 16 puts a general duty on agencies and Ministers to administer the Act with a view to making the maximum amount of government information promptly and inexpensively available to the public, and section 16(2) confirms nothing in the Act is intended to prevent an agency from publishing or giving informal access to documents, including exempt ones, outside the formal request process where it properly can. This is Victoria's informal-release channel; it sits inside the general administration duty rather than as a separately named track.

How to Make a Valid Application

Section 17(1) requires a request in writing to the agency or Minister. Section 17(2) requires enough information to reasonably identify the document. Section 17(2A) requires the request be accompanied by a fee of 2 fee units. OVIC's own section 17 guideline states plainly that the request is not valid until the application fee is paid or waived, making the fee a condition of validity rather than a later billing step. If a request does not comply, section 17(4) stops an agency from refusing it outright without first giving the applicant a chance to consult and fix it, and section 17(3) puts a duty on the agency to help. Section 18 lets a request made to the wrong agency be transferred, deemed received on the transfer date or 14 days after the original request, whichever is shorter.

Fees and Charges

Figures below are for 2026-27, based on a fee-unit value of $17.27 confirmed on the Department of Treasury and Finance's indexation page and cross-checked against OVIC's own consumer FAQ.

The application fee itself may be waived or reduced under section 17(2B) if payment would cause the applicant hardship; OVIC decides that question, and its own guideline states VCAT has no jurisdiction to review a refusal to waive or reduce the fee.

Processing and access charges are a separate matter from the application fee, set under section 22. Section 22(1)(h)(iii) removes them, other than actual copying costs, for a request that is for the applicant's own personal-affairs information; the application fee is still payable. The same no-charge treatment, again excepting actual copying costs, applies to a routine request under section 22(1)(g), a request whose use is of general public interest or benefit under section 22(1)(h)(i), and a request by a Victorian Member of Parliament under section 22(1)(h)(ii).

How Long It Takes

Section 21(1) requires the agency or Minister to notify a decision no later than 30 days after the request is received. Section 21(2)(a) allows an extension of up to 15 days where consultation is required under the sections covering intergovernmental documents, national security, law enforcement, IBAC-related documents, personal privacy, trade secrets or confidential material (ss29, 29A, 31, 31A, 33, 34 and 35). The internal-working-documents and legal-proceedings exemptions are not on that list, so a claim under those sections supports only the slower by-agreement extension. Section 21(2)(b) and (3) allow further extensions of up to 30 days at a time, any number of times, if the applicant agrees, though section 21(5) blocks any extension after the period has already run out. OVIC's own guidance describes a missed deadline as a 'deemed refusal,' which brings review rights into effect the same as an actual refusal decision.

What You Cannot Get

Part IV of the Act sets out the exemptions. Section 28 exempts official Cabinet records, documents prepared for Cabinet submission and documents that would disclose Cabinet deliberations or decisions, other than officially published decisions. Section 30 covers internal working documents, Victoria's deliberative-process exemption. Section 31 exempts law enforcement documents where disclosure would, or would be reasonably likely to, prejudice an investigation, prejudice a fair trial, reveal a confidential source's identity, or reveal law-enforcement methods and procedures. Section 32 exempts a document that would be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional privilege. Section 33 exempts a document whose disclosure would involve the unreasonable disclosure of information relating to a person's personal affairs, including a deceased person's, though section 33(2) confirms this does not apply merely because a document also mentions the requester's own information.

Victoria's structure gives each exemption category its own built-in test, such as section 33's 'unreasonable' disclosure standard, rather than routing every exemption through one omnibus public-interest section the way New South Wales does. This is treated here as a documented feature of the Act's structure rather than an exhaustively verified negative.

If Refused: The Review Ladder

Victoria's Act does not include a formal internal-review step. A refusal, a deferral decision under section 24, or a refusal to waive a fee goes straight to external review.

OVIC review: Section 49A allows an application for review of those decisions. Section 49B(1) requires the application within 28 days of the written decision notice. Section 49J(3) gives OVIC 30 days after receiving the application to complete the review, extendable by written agreement with the applicant but not after the period has already expired; a decision not made within that time is treated as a refusal for the purpose of a further appeal to VCAT.

VCAT: Section 50 sets the grounds, and section 52(1) allows 60 days from the day written notice of the decision is given, whether that is the agency's original decision or, under section 49P, OVIC's review decision, to apply to VCAT.

A separate complaints mechanism sits in Part VIA, and OVIC-initiated investigations, including a public-interest-complaint stream, sit in Part VIB; these are distinct from a review of a specific access decision.

Correcting Your Own Records

Part V of the Act covers amendment of personal records. Section 39 lets a person whose personal-affairs information has been released to them, or a deceased person's next of kin, request correction of any part that is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, or that would give a misleading impression. Section 40 requires the request in writing, with a reply address and particulars of what is wrong and what amendment is sought. Section 41 leaves the method to the agency's discretion: it may alter the record or add a notation. A refusal to amend is reviewable by OVIC under section 49A(2), using the same review mechanism as an access refusal.

Proactive Disclosure

Part II requires agencies to publish, as soon as practicable and in a Minister-approved form, a statement of the agency's organisation, functions and decision-making powers affecting the public, a statement of the categories of documents it holds, and a statement of material it makes available for public inspection. Section 8 additionally requires specific documents used for decisions or recommendations affecting members of the public to be available for inspection or purchase. Section 10 requires a Cabinet register.

What This Act Is Not the Route For

Section 6's judicial-functions carve-out means a court file from a case is not obtained through this Act; see Court Records in Australia for how court records actually work. A person's own record from a public hospital sits with that hospital's own health-records regime rather than this Act, which covers state government agencies generally; see Medical Records in Australia for that route. A police check is not an FOI request either; see Background Checks in Australia. And a land title search goes through the Torrens registry, not FOI; see Property Records in Australia.