Who should attend
This course is designed for all officers who will be making or assisting with decisions on access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) and need to consider how and when exemptions may appropriately be claimed.
Course outline
This course is designed to advance the knowledge and skills of FOI decision makers and practitioners in assessing whether documents ought to be exempt from release and practical and strategic considerations for good decision-making.
The course will cover:
- Overview of the most commonly apply FOI exemptions and conditional exemptions under the FOI Act with practical examples dealing with the following clusters:
- National security, international relations and law enforcement exemptions (ss 7, 33, 37, 38)
- Government deliberations and actions (ss 34, 42, 46, 47C, 47D, 47E)
- third party issues (ss 45, 47, 47B, 47F, 47G)
- Practical and strategic considerations for making exemption claims
- Dealing with situations where confirming or denying the existence of a document is an issue
- Key principles in decision-making and putting it into practice.
A presentation and practical scenarios for participant discussion will be provided.
Objectives
Participants will have a good understanding of the exemption provisions of the FOI Act and be able to identify issues and make good decisions on their application. Participants also benefit from insights into perspectives for other agencies dealing with FOI requests across the Commonwealth.
Presenters
Our presenters are AGS lawyers who have a great depth of knowledge of the government environment and who practise extensively in the areas of information access and administrative law.
Duration
This is a 1-day course delivered online and in-person. This course offers 6 CPD points.
Cost
Standard fee – $920 (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.