Freedom of Information Disclosure

Background

The Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (Vic) (the National Law) established a national system to regulate education and care services for children.

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) is established by the National Law.

Section 264 of the National Law applies the Freedom of Information Act 1982 of the Commonwealth (the FOI Act) in relation to the bodies that undertake the administration of the ‘national education and care services quality framework’. These bodies include ACECQA and the relevant Regulatory Authority in your State or Territory (Regulatory Authority).

The Education and Care Services National Regulations (the National Law Regulation) modifies the FOI Act as it applies to the national education and care services quality framework and the bodies that administer it, including ACECQA.

Freedom of Information

Under the FOI Act, ACECQA will provide the Australian community with access to information held by ACECQA. ACECQA proactively manages the publication of information about its activities that may be of interest to the Australian community.

Right of access under the FOI Act

The FOI Act gives any person the right to:

• access copies of documents (except exempt documents) that ACECQA holds
• ask for information ACECQA holds about them to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading
• seek a review of ACECQA’s decision not to allow them access to a document or not to amend their personal record.

ACECQA 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, Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

Making an FOI application

Applications for access to documents must:

• be in writing ( an email is considered to be ‘in writing’)
• state that the application is made under the FOI Act
• provide enough information concerning the documents sought as is reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the department to identify them; and
• give details of how notices may be sent to the applicant (for example, a postal or email address).

Make an FOI application to ACECQA

Send an application to ACECQA by email or post.

Email:

foi@acecqa.gov.au

Post:

FOI Contact Officer

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority

PO Box A292

Sydney, NSW 1235

Charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request.

There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about an applicant. However, processing charges may apply to other requests.

The most common charges are:

After an application is submitted

ACECQA will deal with applications in accordance with the requirements under the FOI Act as modified by the National Law and the National Law Regulations.

• ACECQA will acknowledge receipt of the FOI request.
• If the applicant is liable to pay a processing charge, ACECQA will send an assessment of the charge.
• An information officer will make a decision on access to the documents requested, and ACECQA will send the applicant a letter explaining its decision and the applicant's review and appeal rights.

Review of decisions

An applicant can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

• if ACECQA refuses to provide access to all or part of a document
• if ACECQA defers providing access to all or part of a document
• if ACECQA imposes a charge
• if ACECQA refuses to change or annotate information about an applicant that the applicant claims is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with ACECQA's decision to provide access to documents that contain information about them can also ask for the decision to be reviewed.

Internal review

Applicants can request in writing that ACECQA reconsider its decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in the agency. ACECQA will advise of its new decision within 30 days of receiving a request.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Office of the National Education and Care Services Freedom of 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 an affected third party is notified).

The Office of the National Education and Care Services Freedom of Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision, or substitute a new decision. The Office of the National Education and Care Services Freedom of Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the National Education and Care Services Freedom of Information Commissioner website at www.necsombudsmanprivacy.edu.au.

Complaints

If an applicant is unhappy with the way ACECQA has handled a request, they can complain to the Office of the National Education and Care Services Freedom of Information Commissioner, who may investigate ACECQA’s actions. More information is available at the Office of the National Education and Care Services Freedom of Information Commissioner website at www.necsombudsmanprivacy.edu.au.

FOI disclosure log

ACECQA's FOI disclosure log will hold any information ACECQA has disclosed under the FOI Act.

Routinely requested information

When established, a list of links to routinely requested documents will be published on this site.

A large amount of information relating to the NQF is already available on ACECQA's website and we encourage you to initially contact our enquiries team on 1300 4 ACECQA or enquiries@acecqa.gov.au if you are seeking advice on a particular matter.

More information

For more information, view the FOI Policy or email foi@acecqa.gov.au