GIPA: How to Access NSW Government Information (Application, Fees, Review)

In New South Wales, the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA) gives every person a legally enforceable right to request government information from a state agency, council or public authority, for a standard $30 application fee and a 20-working-day decision deadline.

New South Wales is one of nine separate freedom of information regimes across Australia, alongside the Commonwealth and every other state and territory, covered in our Australia Freedom of Information hub. This page covers how GIPA actually works in NSW: who it reaches, how to apply, current fees, deadlines and what to do if you are refused.

What GIPA Covers

GIPA's object clause, section 3, sets out three routes to open government information: proactive release, an enforceable right of access for anyone who applies, and restricting access only where there is an overriding public interest against disclosure. Section 9(1) states it directly: a person who makes a valid access application "has a legally enforceable right to be provided with access to the information" sought, unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure.

"Agency" under section 4 and Schedule 4 is broad. It reaches a NSW Public Service agency, a Minister, a public authority, a public office, a local authority (a council), a court, and any entity prescribed by regulation. A "public authority" under Schedule 4 clause 2(1) includes any body established for a public purpose by a legislative instrument, which is why universities are covered, and it separately names state-owned corporations.

Two exclusions matter. First, the NSW Parliament sits outside GIPA entirely: Schedule 4 clause 2(3) states the Legislative Council, the Legislative Assembly, or a committee of either, is not a public authority, and Royal Commissions and Special Commissions of Inquiry are excluded the same way. Second, courts are agencies under section 4(1)(f), but their judicial functions are not reachable through GIPA at all. Schedule 2, clause 1 defines a court's judicial functions (and the DPP's prosecuting functions) as "excluded information." Schedule 1, clause 6 then conclusively presumes an overriding public interest against disclosing excluded information, and section 43 bars making an access application for it in the first place. If you need an actual court file, use Court Records in NSW instead of GIPA.

The Four Ways to Access Information

GIPA does not treat the formal application as the only door in. The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) NSW describes the Act as setting out four ways to access government information, ranked by how much the agency controls the outcome:

1. Mandatory proactive release (section 6) of "open access information" under section 18, which includes an agency's current information guide, its disclosure log, its government contracts register and its policy documents.
2. Authorised proactive release (section 7), where an agency chooses to publish information at its own discretion, reviewed at least every 12 months.
3. Informal release (section 8), where an agency may release information in response to an informal request, unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure. An agency cannot be compelled to consider an informal request.
4. A formal access application (section 9), the only pathway that carries the enforceable right, and the only one that costs a fee.

Most simple requests are resolved faster and more cheaply through the first three pathways than by filing a formal application, and agencies are expected to try informal release before treating a request as a paid application.

How to Make a Formal Access Application

Section 41 sets out the validity checklist for a formal application. To be a valid access application, it must:

• be in writing, and lodged at an agency office or through an agency-approved channel;
• clearly indicate that it is a GIPA access application;
• be accompanied by the $30 application fee;
• state the applicant's name and a postal or email address for correspondence; and
• include enough information to identify the government information being sought.

An application goes to the agency that holds the information, never to the IPC directly. If you have applied to another agency for substantially the same information, section 41(1A) asks you to name that agency, though failing to do so does not invalidate the application. Agencies may ask for proof of identity on a personal-information application as a matter of practice, though this is not a hard requirement written into section 41 itself. Under section 51(1)-(2), the agency must separately decide and notify you whether your application is valid within 5 working days of receiving it, a faster clock than the main decision deadline below.

Fees and Processing Charges

Every figure below sits in the Act itself, sections 41, 64 to 69 and 127, not in a separate fee regulation.

The $30 application fee counts toward the processing charge rather than being charged on top of it (section 64(3)). Beyond the fixed discounts, section 127 gives an agency general discretion to waive, reduce or refund any fee or charge "in any case that the agency thinks appropriate." IPC NSW's own guidance for applicants states the same figures independently of the Act text: $30 standard fee, processing charges on top, a possible 50% deposit request with at least 20 working days to pay, the first 20 hours free for personal-information applications, and a 50% concession discount capped at 50% total.

How Long a Decision Takes

An agency has 20 working days from receipt to decide a formal application (section 57(1)). That period can be extended, but the extension is capped: section 57(2) allows up to 10 additional working days for consulting a third party the Act requires consultation with, or for retrieving archived records, but the combined extension for any one application cannot exceed 15 working days. The period can also be extended by regulation or by agreement with the applicant, and an agency's refusal to agree to an extension is not itself reviewable.

If an agency does not decide within time, section 63 treats that silence as a deemed decision to refuse to deal with the application, and the application fee must be refunded. The agency can still make a late decision afterward, but it cannot then charge a processing fee for a decision made outside the statutory window.

What You Cannot Get

GIPA exemptions run on a two-tier structure, both keyed to section 13's public interest test: there is an overriding public interest against disclosure only where the considerations against disclosure outweigh, on balance, the considerations in favour of it.

Schedule 1 lists information that is conclusively presumed against disclosure, with no balancing test once a document fits the category. Headline categories include information covered by overriding secrecy laws (a long cross-referenced list spanning the Bail Act, the Crimes Acts, spent-conviction secrecy under the Criminal Records Act, and privacy-related Acts), Cabinet information and Executive Council information (both with a 10-year sunset), material that would amount to contempt, legal professional privilege, and the Schedule 2 excluded-information categories described above, which include not just courts' judicial functions but also the investigative functions of bodies such as ICAC, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission and the Ombudsman.

Everything else runs through the public interest test itself. Section 14 lists an exhaustive set of seven categories of considerations against disclosure an agency must weigh: effective and responsible government, law enforcement and security, individual rights and judicial processes (including personal information), business interests, environmental and cultural matters, secrecy provisions, and exempt documents under interstate FOI legislation. Section 12 sets out considerations in favour of disclosure, and unlike section 14, that list is not exhaustive: "Nothing in this Act limits any other public interest considerations in favour" of disclosure.

If You Are Refused: The Review Ladder

GIPA gives a refused applicant a choice of forum rather than a single fixed sequence.

An internal review must be decided within 15 working days (section 86(1)), extendable by 10 working days for new-party consultation, and is deemed affirmed with the review fee refunded if the agency misses its own deadline. Internal review is not available at all if the original decision was made by the agency's principal officer or a Minister; those decisions go straight to the IPC or NCAT. Third parties who were consulted on a decision generally need to exhaust internal review before seeking IPC external review.

Correcting Your Own Information

GIPA itself has no correction or amendment mechanism for personal records; the amendment power it does contain applies only to narrowing the scope of an access application, not to fixing information an agency already holds. The actual right sits in a separate law, the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIPA), section 15, "Alteration of personal information." Under section 15(1), a public sector agency holding your personal information must, on request, make appropriate amendments, whether by correction, deletion or addition, to keep the information accurate and, given why it was collected, relevant, up to date, complete and not misleading. If the agency refuses to amend a record, section 15(2) requires it to attach your own statement of the amendment sought if you ask, and section 15(3) entitles you to have anyone who received the incorrect information notified of the amendment where reasonably practicable. No fee applies.

Proactive Disclosure

Beyond individual applications, GIPA requires agencies to publish information without waiting to be asked. Section 18 defines the "open access information" every agency must make available under section 6, including its current information guide, its disclosure log, its government contracts register and its policy documents, through at least one free channel. Sections 20 to 22 require every agency other than Ministers to adopt an information guide within 6 months of commencement and review it at least every 12 months, notifying the Information Commissioner before adopting or amending it, and consulting the Commissioner if the Commissioner asks. Section 25 requires an agency to keep a disclosure log recording access applications it decided to grant, in whole or in part, where the agency considers the information may be of interest to other members of the public; this is a judgment call for the agency rather than a record of every granted application.

What GIPA Is Not For

GIPA is a general information-access law, not a substitute for the specific channel a record actually sits behind. A court's judicial functions are excluded information, so use Court Records in NSW for an actual court file, not a GIPA application. A land title search runs through the Torrens register, not GIPA; see Property Records in NSW. A police check for employment or other screening purposes goes through the relevant criminal-history-check channel described in Background Checks in Australia, not a GIPA request. And your own medical file held by a NSW public hospital can often be requested more directly through the hospital's own health information unit; see Medical Records in NSW for that process, which overlaps with, but is not identical to, a formal GIPA application for the same information. GIPA and the Privacy Act 1988 also overlap for personal information generally; see Australia Data Privacy Laws for the wider privacy framework.