Managing the public’s rights to government information

Agency Module 2c supplement for local councils

Instructions for using this package

1. It is expected the following modules will have been will have been completed prior to participating in this module:

Agency Module 1 – GIPA introductionAgency Module 2a – Managing the public’s new rights to government informationAgency Module 2b – Contract register and contract disclosures  

2. To make best use of this e-package, view it in slide show mode. 

3. At times there will be extra text or examples shown by highlighted and underlined text. Just click your mouse on the underlined word to see the extra information that is of interest to you. Then click on return < to go back to the original slide.

 

4. There will be review questions to consider throughout the package and a quiz at the end.

 

5. If your staff do not have access to the Internet, you may save and post this package to your own intranet with appropriate acknowledgement to the Information and Privacy Commission (IPC).

Purpose

This module has been designed to provide more specific, practical information and support for local councils to meet the new rights to information requirements of the GIPA Act.

The GIPA Act is designed to meet community expectations for

more open and transparent government.

Topics covered

1. Open access information or mandatory release

  2. Tools to assist and where to from here

3. Quiz

4. Feedback

Open access information or mandatory release

Section 1

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Council documents available to the public

• Section 12 of the Local Government Act 1993 (LGA) specified the council documents that had to be made available free of charge for people to inspect at council offices

• Section 12 of the LGA has now been repealed by the GIPA Consequential Amendments and Repeals Act.

• The GIPA Act and Regulations now sets out what information must be made available as open access information

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What is open access information?

The GIPA Act requires proactive information disclosure by all NSW government agencies including local councils and county councils.

 

Open access information is the information that agencies must publish and make otherwise publicly available free of charge, or at the lowest reasonable cost to the agency provided one form of access is free.

The open access information that all agencies, including local councils, must publish is detailed in e-learning Agency Module 2a

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Additional open access information for local councils The GIPA Regulations provides a tailored and detailed list of additional open access information that local councils must release. Local councils must also publish information about:• Your local authority such as your codes, management

plans, financial plans and policies • Development applications and associated documentation

such as home warranty insurance documents, construction certificates etc; records of decisions on development applications (including decisions made on appeal)

• Approvals, orders and other documents See the Schedule 1 to the GIPA Regulations and Section 18 of the GIPA Act for full details.

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A possible query

“A large amount of open access information is prescribed in the GIPA Regulations. My council has very limited staff and resources. What if we don’t have the capacity to put everything on our website? ”

Review your ideas here!

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Review question

“We maintain a register of companion animals at my council. Do we have to release this? It contains the owner’s contact name and number so we can contact them if there is a problem with their animal.”

What would you think about in deciding whether to release this document, and if so, in what format?

Review your ideas here!

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Exceptions

The exceptions to these open access information requirements for local government are outlined in the GIPA Regulations Schedule 1 [3] (2) and summarised as:

• The plans and specifications for any residential parts of a proposed building (other than plans merely showing its height and external configuration)

• Commercial information, if the information would prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied it or reveal a trade secret.

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Review question

“The GIPA Regulations require information about development applications to be made publicly available. My council is concerned that DAs and supporting documents contain personal information, and we are worried that publishing this on the internet may breach people’s privacy. What should we do?”

What part/s of the GIPA Act could guide you in your decision making?

Review your ideas here!

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Remember the public interest test

The public interest test involves three steps:

1. Identifying the relevant public interest factors for disclosure

2. Identifying any relevant public interest factors against disclosure

3. Assessing whether the public interest against disclosure outweighs the public interest in favour of disclosure

There is a presumption in favour of the disclosure of

government information unless there is an overriding public

interest against disclosure (Section 5).

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Tools to assist and where to from here

Section 2

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Additional tools to assist

See IPC web resources:

• Commercial arrangements for local government knowledge update

• GIPA Act guidelines 1: local councils

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Review question

“My council maintains a register of interests of councillors and designated persons. It is prescribed in the GIPA Regulations as open access information. Should we publish the register in the internet?”

What could guide you in your decision making?

Review your ideas here!

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Something practical for you to do now!

• Use the checklist for local councils

• After you have completed this e-package, print out a copy of the checklist and use it as a tool to review with key responsibility areas in your agency. It has suggested questions to ask to assess your responsiveness to the responsibilities of the GIPA Act.

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Quiz

Section 3

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Quiz

1. My council has received a formal access application seeking information about orders made under the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) regarding a particular property in the last 15 years. Should we cash the cheque and process the application?

Yes or No

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Answer to quiz question 1

Answer: No

The GIPA Regulations state that information about orders, whenever created, is open access information.

The correct thing to do would be to contact the applicant and advise him or her that the information is available without needing to lodge a formal access application and direct them to that information.

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Quiz

2. You have been contacted by a journalist from your local newspaper questioning the integrity of recent decisions made by councilors and requesting access to minutes from the last council meeting. You have delegated authority from the general manager to respond to informal requests and proactively release information. Do you:

a) Advise the journalist to make a formal access applicationb) Refer the request to your general managerc) Refer the journalist to your website where minutes of any

meeting of local council are available as open access information (except for any part of the meeting that is closed to the public)

d) Consider the request as an informal request for information and apply the public interest test.

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Answer to quiz question 2

Answer: c)

 

Minutes of any meeting (except those parts closed to

the public) come under additional open access

information requirements of local authorities.

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Feedback

Thank you for completing this e-learning package. We welcome your feedback. Our resources will continue to be tailored to respond to issues and needs identified through this feedback.

 

If you would like to tell us what you thought of this e-learning exploring some of the specific local government responsibilities under the new rights to government information legislation, please ring the IPC on 1800 IPC NSW (1800 472 769) or email us on ipcinfo@ipc.nsw.gov.au.

 

Or open and save this evaluation form. After you have completed it, please email it back to us as an attachment to: ipcinfo@ipc.nsw.gov.au.

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