As you will be aware, the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act 1992 was recently passed by the Parliament, and has now received assent.

The amendments introduced by the Act include:

• a reduction in the time within which agencies must determine applications, from 45 days to 21 days (subject to the proviso that an agency may extend this time period by a further 14 days if special circumstances exist, such as the need to consult or to locate and retrieve archived documents);
• a provision stating that it is not relevant to take into account the possibility of embarrassment to the Government, loss of confidence in the Government or misunderstanding of information by the applicant when determining whether giving access to a document is in the public interest;
• the removal of the right of an agency to refuse access to a document on the ground that it came into existence more than 5 years before the commencement of the Act;
• making a refusal to deal with an application on the ground that to do so would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of the agency's resources subject to internal and external review;
• providing that the Supreme Court rather than the District Court will review determinations in relation to documents the subject of a Ministerial certificate. The District Court will continue to conduct all other reviews;
• limiting the power to confirm a Ministerial certificate where the certificate is not upheld by the Court to Cabinet and Executive Council documents;
• reducing the number of bodies and offices that are exempt from the operation of the Act and limiting the functions in relation to which other bodies or offices are exempt;
• amendments concerning fees and charges and the review of fees and charges.

It is intended to proclaim the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act 1992 to commence from 1 July 1992. This will allow agencies sufficient time to examine the amendments made to the Act and to prepare for implementation.

I would appreciate it if you would inform all agencies under the Freedom of Information Act within your administration of the passage of this legislation, and its proposed commencement date of 1 July 1992.

Yours sincerely

N F Greiner MP