Right to Information in Queensland: RTI Applications, Fees and Reviews

In Queensland, the Right to Information Act 2009 is now the single application pathway for both general government information and an applicant's own personal information, after a 1 July 2025 restructure folded personal-information access and amendment into the RTI Act itself.

Queensland 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 Queensland RTI 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 Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld), current as at 1 July 2026. Section 3(1)(a) frames the right itself as public-interest-qualified: a right of access to information in the government's possession or control 'unless, on balance, it is contrary to the public interest to give the access,' a different structure from Victoria's unqualified 'legally enforceable right' wording. Section 14(1) defines an agency as a department, a local government, a public authority, a government owned corporation, or a subsidiary of one; section 14(3) folds boards, councils and committees established to help an agency, including school councils, into that agency rather than treating them separately.

Schedule 2 Part 1 removes some entities from the Act entirely, including the Governor, the Legislative Assembly and its committees, and the Parliamentary Judges Commission of Inquiry. Schedule 2 Part 2 is the judicial-functions carve-out: item 1 excludes a court, and the holder of a judicial or connected office, in relation to the court's judicial functions; item 2 does the same for court registry staff; items 3 to 8 extend the same carve-out to tribunals and other quasi-judicial entities, broader than the court-only carve-outs used in some other states.

The Post-IPOLA Single Track

The Information Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023 passed Parliament on 29 November 2023 and commenced 1 July 2025, amending both the Information Privacy Act and the RTI Act. Section 3(1)(b) of the RTI Act now includes, as one of the Act's own primary objects, 'a right of amendment of personal information in the government's possession or under the government's control unless, on balance, it is contrary to the public interest to allow the information to be amended.' Section 8 makes the relationship explicit: the Information Privacy Act 'is intended to operate subject to the provisions of this Act regulating the accessing and amendment of personal information.' Chapter 3A, sections 78E to 78R, now houses a full amendment-application regime inside the RTI Act.

The subordinate legislation was remade to match: the current instrument is the Right to Information Regulation 2025, alongside a companion Information Privacy Regulation 2025. The practical effect for an applicant is that there is now one application pathway, an RTI Act access application under section 24, regardless of whether the documents sought are the applicant's own personal information or general government information; the fee and charge provisions build in the personal-versus-general distinction rather than routing personal-information requests down a separate Information Privacy Act track. A description of Queensland as running two parallel access Acts describes the position before 1 July 2025, not the current law.

Informal Release First

Section 19, 'Other ways of accessing information,' confirms information may be obtained other than by a formal application: under an agency's own administrative arrangements, including its publication scheme or disclosure log or under another Act; through public inspection under the Public Records Act 2023 or in a public library; or where the material is already commercially available.

How to Make a Valid Application

Section 24(1) to (3) requires a written application to the agency or Minister, accompanied by the application fee, giving enough information to identify the document and stating a reply address; no approved form is required. Section 24(2)(d) adds a further requirement for a personal-information application: evidence of identity, and evidence of an agent's authority if applicable.

The OIC's own community guidance sets out what counts as identity evidence: a certified copy of a passport, birth certificate or driver licence, certified by a Justice of the Peace, lawyer, Commissioner for Declarations, pharmacist or Notary Public; a PDF extracted from the Queensland Digital Licence app, which must be emailed rather than posted; or a statutory declaration from someone who has known the applicant for 12 months or more. A redacted copy of an identity document is not accepted, and the agency will not process the application until a full copy is supplied. Incarcerated applicants use a certified Prisoner Identity Card instead.

An application that does not meet these requirements, including an unpaid fee or an unclear scope, does not have to be processed until the applicant fixes it.

Fees and Charges

Figures below are the 2026-27 amounts confirmed both by the Right to Information Regulation 2025 (SL 2025 No. 74), sections 6 to 8, and independently by the OIC's own community guidance, using a fee-unit value of $1.133 under the Acts Interpretation (Fee Unit) Regulation 2022.

The application fee can never be waived, a rule stated twice: in section 24(4) of the Act and again in the OIC's own plain-language guidance. It is nonetheless not payable at all if every document requested contains only the applicant's own personal information, under section 24(5); if a fee was paid in that situation, section 24(6) requires it be refunded. Processing and access charges, unlike the application fee, can be waived for financial hardship; the OIC defines that concretely as holding a Services Australia Health Care Card, a Services Australia Pensioner Concession Card, or a DVA Pensioner Concession Card, with nonprofits able to apply to the OIC directly for hardship status. Section 60 requires charges to be paid before access is given, and a processing charge remains payable even if access is ultimately refused or the applicant never collects the documents; section 62 requires the agency to refund any overpayment.

How Long It Takes

Section 18(1)(a) sets a base processing period of 25 business days from the valid application day. Section 18(1)(b) adds extensions: a transfer to another agency adds the lesser of the actual transfer time or 10 business days; a consultation notice under section 42(1)(a) or section 78O(1)(a) adds the prescribed consultation period; and an agency-requested further period the applicant accepts or does not challenge also extends the clock.

Section 45 requires written notice of a decision. Section 46(1)(a) states that if no written notice is given by the end of the processing period, the agency is taken to have made a deemed decision refusing access, on the last day of that period. Section 46(1)(b) requires any application fee already paid to be refunded as soon as practicable once that happens, a specific consumer protection not found in every state's equivalent provision.

What You Cannot Get

Section 47(3) sets a two-track refusal structure. An agency may refuse access to the extent a document is 'exempt information' under section 48 and Schedule 3, an absolute bar with no balancing test, or to the extent disclosure would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest under section 49 and Schedule 4, a balancing test. Section 47(2) builds a pro-disclosure instruction into the refusal-grounds section itself: Parliament intends the grounds be interpreted narrowly, and an agency may give access even where a ground for refusal applies.

Schedule 3's headline categories include Cabinet matter, exempt for 10 years after its relevant date; Executive Council information; incoming-Minister briefing information; information revealing the Sovereign's or Royal family's private matters; information whose disclosure would be a contempt of Parliament or a court; information subject to legal professional privilege; information whose disclosure would found a breach-of-confidence action; national or state security information; law enforcement or public safety information; investment-incentive-scheme information; and information another Act prohibits disclosing.

Schedule 4 has four parts. Part 1 lists factors Parliament has declared irrelevant to the public interest, such as potential government embarrassment, the risk the applicant might misinterpret the information, 'mischievous conduct' by the applicant, or the seniority of the document's author; none of these can be weighed against disclosure. Part 2 lists factors favouring disclosure, such as open discussion of public affairs and government accountability. Part 3 lists factors favouring nondisclosure. Part 4 lists a separate, narrower set of factors favouring nondisclosure because disclosure itself would cause public interest harm, weighed under section 49(4). Other people's personal information is not a single numbered Schedule 3 item; the OIC's own guidance frames it as almost always weighing against disclosure under the Schedule 4 balancing test instead. Separate refusal grounds outside this split cover a child's best interests where a document contains a child's personal information, information whose disclosure could be prejudicial to the applicant's own health, a document that does not exist or cannot be located, and information reasonably available another way.

If Refused: The Review Ladder

Internal review is optional. Note 2 to section 85 states directly that it is not necessary to have an internal review before applying for external review. If an applicant does seek one, section 82(c) requires the application within 20 business days of the decision notice, and section 82A sets a 20-business-day internal-review processing period, extended by 5 business days if the applicant's only address on file is postal, by 10 business days if third-party consultation under section 37 is involved, or by agreement. Section 83(2) has a Queensland-specific nuance: if the agency does not decide within that period, it is taken to have affirmed the original decision, a deemed affirmance rather than a fresh deemed refusal.

External review goes to the Office of the Information Commissioner. Section 85 allows an application to review a 'reviewable decision,' and section 88(1)(d) requires it within 20 business days of the written decision notice, or a longer period the Commissioner allows. Section 86 carves out one thing from external review: a dispute purely about the amount stated in a charges estimate notice is not externally reviewable.

QCAT sits above the OIC, but only on a question of law. Section 119(1) and (3) allow an appeal to QCAT's appeal tribunal against the Commissioner's decision, restricted to a question of law, and section 119(4)(a) requires the notice of appeal within 20 business days of the decision, unless the tribunal orders otherwise. Section 118 separately lets the Commissioner refer a pure question of law to QCAT mid-review, with the Commissioner bound by the answer.

No fee figure for lodging an internal review, an external review, or a QCAT appeal was located; the application fee and charge figures above relate only to the original access application.

Correcting Your Own Records

Amendment now sits inside the RTI Act itself, in Chapter 3A. Section 78E(1) lets an individual who has had access to a document, under the RTI Act or otherwise, apply to amend any part of their own personal information that they say is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading. Section 78E(2) and (3) extend this to someone whose agent had access, and to a deceased person's eligible family member or another person with an appropriate interest. Section 78E(4) requires the application in writing, identifying the document and giving a reply address. A refusal to amend is reviewable through the same internal, external and QCAT review structure used for access refusals.

Proactive Disclosure

Section 20 requires agencies to make policy documents available for inspection and purchase, subject to redacting exempt or contrary-to-public-interest content. Section 21 requires a publication scheme, a structure similar to Victoria's statement-of-affairs requirement and the Commonwealth's Information Publication Scheme. Section 78A creates disclosure logs: where an agency decides to release a non-personal-information document and the applicant collects it, the agency may add a copy or the access details to a disclosure log, letting anyone else access the same document for no charge. Section 78B excludes information that would itself be contrary to the public interest to publish this way, such as anything that would identify a vulnerable person, as a safety valve on that push model.

What This Act Is Not the Route For

Schedule 2 Part 2's judicial-functions carve-out means a court file, or a tribunal's file in its judicial or quasi-judicial functions, is not obtained through an RTI application; see Court Records in Australia for how court records actually work. A person's own hospital medical record may involve health-specific access considerations beyond a straight RTI application; see Medical Records in Australia for that route. A police check is not an RTI request; see Background Checks in Australia. A land title search runs through the Torrens registry, not RTI; see Property Records in Australia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I still need to use a separate Act to get my own personal information in Queensland?

No. Since 1 July 2025, the IPOLA restructure folded personal-information access and amendment into the Right to Information Act itself. There is now one application pathway, an RTI Act access application, for both personal and general government information.

What is the application fee for an RTI request in Queensland?

$59.60 for 2026-27, and it can never be waived under section 24(4). It is not payable at all, however, if every document requested contains only the applicant's own personal information, under section 24(5).

How long does a Queensland agency have to decide my RTI application?

25 business days from a valid application, under section 18(1)(a). Missing the deadline is a deemed refusal under section 46(1)(a), and any fee already paid must be refunded once that happens.

Do I have to request an internal review before going to the Information Commissioner?

No. Note 2 to section 85 of the Act confirms internal review is optional. An applicant can apply directly to the Office of the Information Commissioner for external review within 20 business days of the decision.

Can I appeal an OIC decision to QCAT?

Yes, but only on a question of law, under section 119(3), and the notice of appeal must be filed within 20 business days unless the tribunal orders otherwise.

What can I not get through a Queensland RTI request?

Schedule 2 Part 2 excludes a court's, or a tribunal's, judicial or quasi-judicial functions. Schedule 3 exempts categories such as Cabinet matter, legal professional privilege and law enforcement information outright, and Schedule 4 sets out a public-interest balancing test for everything else the agency wants to refuse.