About FOI

CSIRO's FOI Team handles freedom of information requests received by the Organisation or referred by other Federal Government Departments and Agencies.

Your rights

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) gives you the right to:

• access copies of documents we hold (except documents that are exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act)
• ask for information that we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading
• seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to see any document that CSIRO holds, except for documents in respect of our commercial activities.

CSIRO can also refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents, that are exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act. Exempt documents may include those:

• containing material obtained in confidence
• disclosing trade secrets or commercially sensitive or valuable information
• containing information relating to research that is being undertaken by CSIRO
• containing personal information
• relating to deliberative processes of CSIRO.

Further information in relation to exemptions under the FOI Act can be found on OAIC's website.

Documents available outside the FOI Act

It may be possible for you to gain access to information, including some of your personnel records (as an employee or former employee), without making a formal request under the FOI Act ('administrative access'). Please contact us at FOI@csiro.au for more information about seeking administrative access to information.

You should also check the information CSIRO has published under the Information Publication Scheme and FOI disclosure log to see if the documents you are seeking are already available.

How to make an FOI request

Making a valid request

Your request must:

• be in writing
• state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
• describe the document(s) as clearly as possible to assist us to process your request (noting that the FOI Act provides a right to access 'documents', not 'information', - the FOI Act does not require CSIRO to create any new document to satisfy a request)
• provide an address or email address for reply.

On receiving your request, CSIRO’s FOI Team will assess whether it is valid under the FOI Act. If your request is not valid, the statutory timeframes for processing the request do not commence. In this case, CSIRO will advise you as soon as practicable, and, where appropriate, will either help you make a valid request or suggest alternative options.

Large or complicated requests

Under the FOI Act, CSIRO may refuse your request if we determine that processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert CSIRO’s resources from its other operations. If this is the case, CSIRO will consult with you before formally refusing your request. However, we encourage you to consider this when making your application.

Ways that you can help us when making a request

Documents often contain personal information about CSIRO staff and other individuals, including research participants, business and industry partners, service providers and officials of other government agencies.

When making your request, please let us know if you are willing to remove identifying information about CSIRO staff, or individuals generally, from the scope of your request. Doing so often allows us to make FOI decisions more efficiently and may avoid us having to consult with other parties, while still providing you with the substantive information that you are seeking.

Similarly, if you are happy to remove draft versions of documents, duplicate documents and/or ‘near-duplicates’ (like all the ‘sent’ and ‘received’ copies of an internal email), please let us know when submitting your request. Doing so can significantly reduce the amount of documents we have to process, as well as the number of irrelevant documents you may receive.

Making requests on behalf of someone else

If you are making a request on behalf of someone else for documents containing that person’s personal information, we need to receive a specific, written and signed authority from that person for CSIRO to give you access to their personal information. We may also require you and/or the third party to provide proof of identification.

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Team.

Submitting your FOI request

• You can submit your request via post to:
  • Freedom of Information Team
    CSIRO
    GPO Box 1700
    Canberra ACT 2601
    Australia
• Or by email to: FOI@csiro.au

What you can expect from us

Timeframes

CSIRO will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request.

We will give you our decision concerning your request within 30 days. However, in certain circumstances this may be extended.

If a document contains personal or business information about a third party, or information about a state/territory or foreign government entity or international organisation, we may need to consult that third party, entity or organisation. Under the FOI Act, this will extend the processing time by another 30 days.

We may also seek your agreement, or approval from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex, or if there is an administrative need or special circumstances (such as over the end-of-year government shut-down period).

The ‘processing clock’ for your FOI request may also be paused in certain circumstances, including where we consider that processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert CSIRO’s resources from its other operations. In that case, the timeframe for processing your request will, in effect, be extended by the amount of time it takes to consult with you on the possibility of reducing or clarifying the scope of your request.

Publication

Ordinarily, CSIRO will make any documents it releases under the FOI Act available for public access on its FOI Disclosure Log, subject to certain exceptions (such as where this would amount to an unreasonable publication of personal information).

Links to the FOI Disclosure Log are on this page and sorted by financial year.

Fees and charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.There are also no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you.

However, processing charges may apply to other requests. The charges are set out in theFreedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 (Cth). The most common charges are summarised here:

If CSIRO decides to impose a charge, CSIRO will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.

You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide supporting evidence.

If you disagree with our decision

When CSIRO has made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and setting out your review and appeal rights.

The FOI Act sets out the decisions you can ask to be reviewed. These include:

• if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
• if we impose a charge
• if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.
• if there is a 'deemed' refusal decision (where a decision has not been made within the allowed time)
• if we refuse to accept your internal review request after the period for making one has lapsed

A third party who disagrees with CSIRO’s decision to give you access to documents that contain information about them (an 'affected third party') can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.  If a third party seeks review of our decision to grant you access to documents, we are not able to provide you with access to those documents until the third party’s review rights are exhausted.

Internal review

Within 30 days after receiving our decision (or 15 days of receiving access to the documents if access was deferred), you can request in writing that we conduct an internal review of our decision. At our discretion, CSIRO may accept your internal review request where that period has lapsed.

An internal review will be conducted by a different CSIRO officer to the one who made the original decision. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request to review.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our internal review decision within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances.More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.

Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC’s website. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult with each other to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information

Certain documents that we have released under the FOI Act can be obtained at our FOI disclosure log, information about our Information Publication Scheme is also available.

CSIRO's FOI Team handles freedom of information requests received by the Organisation or referred by other Federal Government Departments and Agencies.

Your rights

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) gives you the right to:

• access copies of documents we hold (except documents that are exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act)
• ask for information that we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading
• seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to see any document that CSIRO holds, except for documents in respect of our commercial activities.

CSIRO can also refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents, that are exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act. Exempt documents may include those:

• containing material obtained in confidence
• disclosing trade secrets or commercially sensitive or valuable information
• containing information relating to research that is being undertaken by CSIRO
• containing personal information
• relating to deliberative processes of CSIRO.

Further information in relation to exemptions under the FOI Act can be found on OAIC's website.

Documents available outside the FOI Act

It may be possible for you to gain access to information, including some of your personnel records (as an employee or former employee), without making a formal request under the FOI Act ('administrative access'). Please contact us at FOI@csiro.au for more information about seeking administrative access to information.

You should also check the information CSIRO has published under the Information Publication Scheme and FOI disclosure log to see if the documents you are seeking are already available.

How to make an FOI request

Making a valid request

Your request must:

• be in writing
• state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
• describe the document(s) as clearly as possible to assist us to process your request (noting that the FOI Act provides a right to access 'documents', not 'information', - the FOI Act does not require CSIRO to create any new document to satisfy a request)
• provide an address or email address for reply.

On receiving your request, CSIRO’s FOI Team will assess whether it is valid under the FOI Act. If your request is not valid, the statutory timeframes for processing the request do not commence. In this case, CSIRO will advise you as soon as practicable, and, where appropriate, will either help you make a valid request or suggest alternative options.

Large or complicated requests

Under the FOI Act, CSIRO may refuse your request if we determine that processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert CSIRO’s resources from its other operations. If this is the case, CSIRO will consult with you before formally refusing your request. However, we encourage you to consider this when making your application.

Ways that you can help us when making a request

Documents often contain personal information about CSIRO staff and other individuals, including research participants, business and industry partners, service providers and officials of other government agencies.

When making your request, please let us know if you are willing to remove identifying information about CSIRO staff, or individuals generally, from the scope of your request. Doing so often allows us to make FOI decisions more efficiently and may avoid us having to consult with other parties, while still providing you with the substantive information that you are seeking.

Similarly, if you are happy to remove draft versions of documents, duplicate documents and/or ‘near-duplicates’ (like all the ‘sent’ and ‘received’ copies of an internal email), please let us know when submitting your request. Doing so can significantly reduce the amount of documents we have to process, as well as the number of irrelevant documents you may receive.

Making requests on behalf of someone else

If you are making a request on behalf of someone else for documents containing that person’s personal information, we need to receive a specific, written and signed authority from that person for CSIRO to give you access to their personal information. We may also require you and/or the third party to provide proof of identification.

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Team.

Submitting your FOI request

• You can submit your request via post to:
  • Freedom of Information Team
    CSIRO
    GPO Box 1700
    Canberra ACT 2601
    Australia
• Or by email to: FOI@csiro.au

What you can expect from us

Timeframes

CSIRO will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request.

We will give you our decision concerning your request within 30 days. However, in certain circumstances this may be extended.

If a document contains personal or business information about a third party, or information about a state/territory or foreign government entity or international organisation, we may need to consult that third party, entity or organisation. Under the FOI Act, this will extend the processing time by another 30 days.

We may also seek your agreement, or approval from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex, or if there is an administrative need or special circumstances (such as over the end-of-year government shut-down period).

The ‘processing clock’ for your FOI request may also be paused in certain circumstances, including where we consider that processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert CSIRO’s resources from its other operations. In that case, the timeframe for processing your request will, in effect, be extended by the amount of time it takes to consult with you on the possibility of reducing or clarifying the scope of your request.

Publication

Ordinarily, CSIRO will make any documents it releases under the FOI Act available for public access on its FOI Disclosure Log, subject to certain exceptions (such as where this would amount to an unreasonable publication of personal information).

Links to the FOI Disclosure Log are on this page and sorted by financial year.

Fees and charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.There are also no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you.

However, processing charges may apply to other requests. The charges are set out in theFreedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 (Cth). The most common charges are summarised here:

If CSIRO decides to impose a charge, CSIRO will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.

You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide supporting evidence.

If you disagree with our decision

When CSIRO has made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and setting out your review and appeal rights.

The FOI Act sets out the decisions you can ask to be reviewed. These include:

• if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
• if we impose a charge
• if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.
• if there is a 'deemed' refusal decision (where a decision has not been made within the allowed time)
• if we refuse to accept your internal review request after the period for making one has lapsed

A third party who disagrees with CSIRO’s decision to give you access to documents that contain information about them (an 'affected third party') can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.  If a third party seeks review of our decision to grant you access to documents, we are not able to provide you with access to those documents until the third party’s review rights are exhausted.

Internal review

Within 30 days after receiving our decision (or 15 days of receiving access to the documents if access was deferred), you can request in writing that we conduct an internal review of our decision. At our discretion, CSIRO may accept your internal review request where that period has lapsed.

An internal review will be conducted by a different CSIRO officer to the one who made the original decision. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request to review.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our internal review decision within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances.More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.

Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC’s website. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult with each other to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information

Certain documents that we have released under the FOI Act can be obtained at our FOI disclosure log, information about our Information Publication Scheme is also available.