Over recent months, my office has received numerous complaints from individuals and representations from organisations about significant delays in processing requests under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).

The Department has been facing difficulty in complying with the statutory requirement that Freedom of Information (FOI) requests be processed within 30 days and it currently has a significant processing backlog.

My office has been discussing this issue with DIMIA and has pressed the Department for action to address the problems that have given rise to the delays. I am satisfied that the strategy being put in place by the Department to resolve the problems will be appropriate to get the processing of FOI requests back under control in the longer term. My office will closely monitor the implementation of the strategy and ensure that the Department continues to give it a high priority.

In the meantime, my office will continue to accept complaints about FOI delays and may investigate individual complaints if we consider that particular matters should be given priority. I should also note that when an agency fails to comply with the statutory deadline for processing FOI requests, the FOI Act provides that the agency is deemed to have refused access and the person may appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. I do not necessarily recommend this course of action, as there are costs attached to it and it may not lead to earlier resolution of an FOI application, but it is an option provided for in the FOI Act that should be noted.

Prof. John McMillan
Commonwealth Ombudsman

Date of release: 8 June 2005