Freedom of information

We have a range of information available for public access. You can formally request access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents we hold.

On this page 

• Your rights
• How to make an FOI request
• Fees and charges
• What you can expect from us
• If you disagree with our decision
• Internal review
• Information Commissioner Review
• Complaints
• More information
• Freedom of Information disclosure log
• Information Publication Scheme

Your rights 

The FOI Act gives any person the right to:

• access copies of documents (except exempt documents) we hold
• ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading, and
• 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 we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

How to make an FOI request 

Your request must:

• be in writing
• state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
• provide information about the document(s) you wish to access so that we can process your request
• provide an address for reply.

FOI requests to the OTA should be sent to:

The Freedom of Information Coordinator
Organ and Tissue Authority
PO Box 802
CANBERRA ACT 2601

FOI requests may also be lodged by email to foi@donatelife.gov.au.

Fees and charges 

The FOI Act provides the OTA with the discretion to impose, or not impose, a charge for processing a request or providing access to documents. 

There are no fees applicable under the FOI Act for:

• making a FOI request
• providing access to an applicant’s own personal information
• the first 5 hours of decision-making time, and
• FOI requests not decided within the processing period.

Charges are likely to apply where the request represents a significant undertaking for the search and retrieval of documents and the associated decision-making process, including time spent deciding to grant or refuse a request, examining documents and making deletions.

Decisions to impose charges will be made in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019, on a case-by-case basis. 

What you can expect from us 

We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

If you disagree with our decision 

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

You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

• 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.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Internal review 

You can ask in writing that we reconsider our decision (internal review). Requests for internal review must be made within in writing within 30 days of the date of the original FOI decision. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.

Information Commissioner Review 

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review 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 from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

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 from the OAIC. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information 

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Contact Officer by email at foi@donatelife.gov.au.

Freedom of Information disclosure log 

The OTA is required by section 11C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to publish a disclosure log on its website. The disclosure log lists information that has been released in response to an FOI access request.

The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:

• personal information about any person if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'
• information about the business, commercial, financial or professional affairs of any person if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'
• other information covered by a determination made by the Australian Information Commissioner if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'
• any information if it is not reasonably practicable to publish the information because of the extent of modifications that would need to be made to delete the information listed in the above dot points.

Information attached to, or referred to, in the OTA disclosure log will generally be removed after 2 years, unless the information has enduring public value.

Information Publication Scheme 

The Organ and Tissue Authority is an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) and is required to comply with the Australian Government Information Publication Scheme (IPS). The IPS provides a legislative framework for the publication of Government information. 

The OTA’s IPS plan 

The OTA’s Information Publication Scheme Agency Plan (the Plan) outlines:  

• what information we will publish
• how the information will be published
• how we will comply with the IPS requirements of the FOI Act
• how we will administer our IPS plan and compliance review. 

Objectives  

Through this Plan we intend to continue implementing arrangements to: 

• manage the IPS entry using appropriate mechanisms and procedures
• proactively identify and publish information required to be published
• proactively identify and publish additional information to be published
• ensure, on a regular basis, information published under the IPS is accurate, up-to-date and complete
• ensure conformance with the whole of government online requirements – Web content accessibility guidelines (Version 2) (WCAG 2.2)
• measure the success of our IPS.  

Administering the OTA’s IPS 

The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for leading the OTA’s work on implementing freedom of information (FOI) reforms generally, and ensuring the OTA complies with its IPS obligations. This includes establishing, developing and maintaining the scheme within the OTA in accordance with any assistance or guidelines provided by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), and ensuring that all requests for access to documents are processed in accordance with the FOI Act. 

 To ensure ongoing satisfaction with the IPS requirements, the OTA will regularly: 

• review existing information held by the OTA to determine whether further material should be made publicly available as part of the scheme
• review existing information held by the OTA that is routinely provided to Parliament in response to requests and orders
• determine what additional information should be published to satisfy the requirements of section 8(2) of the FOI Act
• publish any information, identified through a review process, in accordance with the requirements of the scheme. 

The Communication & Engagement team is responsible for ensuring all material published to our website is, as far as possible, accessible and conforms with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 2) (WCAG 2.2). 

There is no charge for accessing or downloading information published on the IPS. Where information is requested in an alternate format or to be posted, we may consider a charge. If charges are necessary, it will be at the lowest reasonable cost, to reimburse specific reproduction costs or other specific incidental costs. More information on how to request access to a document in another format can be found at our FOI website page. 

Publication  

We publish all new information to meet the WCAG 2.2 standards. 

The Freedom of Information page on the OTA’s website is the main portal through with members of the public can directly access information available under the IPS.  

The disclosure log lists information that has been released by the OTA in response to an FOI access request. 

Information architecture  

We currently publish a wide range of information on our website, including all categories of information required under the IPS. IPS entries are published via links on the OTA’s website. 

Information made available through freedom of information (FOI) requests is published on the OTA disclosure log whenever possible. 

Information required to be published 

We facilitate public access to information through a range of IPS entries on our website.  

We publish this information on our website under the following headings: 

• OTA IPS Agency Plan
• About us: what we do, who we work with and our data and research
• Who we are: our CEO, Executive and organisational structure, our Advisory Board our DonateLife National program
• Strategy and performance: strategic planning documents detailing our priorities, key activities and performance indicators including our strategy, corporate plan and annual reports.
• Corporate transparency: includes documents required by law to be tabled in parliament and documents routinely tabled in accordance with Senate standing orders.
• Freedom of Information: including our disclosure log and contact details for officers of the OTA who can be contacted about access to the OTA’s information or documents under the FOI Act

Other information we publish 

We consider making other information available as part of our IPS publication wherever possible, taking into account the objects of the FOI Act. Other information we publish includes: 

• a range of data reports and research detailing the performance of the National DonateLife Program to increase organ and tissue donation in Australia
• a range of government reports into the national organ and tissue donation program
• information about grants we provide to encourage more Australians and their families to talk about organ and tissue donation. 

Compliance review  

The OTA will review and update our agency plan, as appropriate, in the context of our overall strategic planning process and having regard to relevant guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act. 

Feedback on the IPS Plan can be forwarded to FOI@donatelife.gov.au, and will inform the OTA’s review of its IPS Plan and approach.