Who should attend

Employees who are responsible for making recommendations or decisions in response to applications for access to documents under the Archives Act 1983 will benefit from this course.

Course outline

The Archives Act provides a regime for access to older Commonwealth records which operates in parallel to the Freedom of Information Act 1982. Like the FOI Act, the Archives Act contains exemptions to protect certain types of information from disclosure. Many exemptions are similar to, but vary subtly from, those in the FOI Act.

This course is a practical exploration of the most frequently used exemptions, including those relating to:

  • personal affairs
  • damage to security, defence and international relations
  • material communicated in confidence, including from a foreign government
  • law enforcement.

Objectives

Participants will be exposed to current thinking and case law on the application of these key exemptions. They will be better equipped to identify the key considerations in relation to each exemption and to articulate their application to records relevant to them.

Presenters

Our presenters are experienced AGS lawyers who have a great depth of knowledge of the government environment and who practise extensively in the areas of information access.

Duration

This is a half-day course, either 9 am – 12.30 pm or 1.30 – 5 pm.

Cost

Standard fee – $460 (inclusive of GST) per person. No more than 20 people will be accepted on each course and courses will only be conducted if we receive sufficient nominations.