Freedom of Information Disclosures
On 30 April 2009, the then-Special Minister of State Senator John Faulkner wrote to all secretaries and agency heads asking them to take ‘a lead role in facilitating the government’s policy objective of enhancing a culture of disclosure across agencies’.
In the spirit of promoting greater openness in government and as an interim measure, the department will maintain a list of documents released under the FOI Act since this date on its website. When the FOI legislation is passed, agencies will be required from 1 July 2010 to publish copies of material released under the FOI Act within 10 days of the decision. This requirement will not be applicable to documents of a personal or commercially valuable nature.
The department’s list is not exhaustive – it does not include the following:
- documents of a personal or commercially valuable nature released under FOI
- documents to which access has been refused or which are exempt from release under FOI
- documents which have been released to the media or members of the public outside the FOI framework.
It is hoped that this measure will enable members of the public and the media to quickly and easily obtain access to material which has already been disclosed under the FOI Act.
This list provides a general description of documents disclosed (with redactions) under the FOI Act since 30 April 2009, and will be regularly updated.
| Disclosure Date | Description of Documents |
|---|---|
| 6/5/2009 | Incidence of mental illness among migrants (pre-1960) |
| 30/5/2009 | Statistics pertaining to onshore asylum seekers. |
| 17/6/2009 | Documents regarding the escape of detainees from Christmas Island Detention Centre in December 2008. |
| 30/6/2009 | The department’s On the Radar reports from December 2007 to January 2009. |
| 10/7/2009 | Documents regarding the issue of illegal substances in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and what action has been taken. |
| 13/7/2009 | The department’s Community Update Reports from December 2007 to January 2009. |
| 28/7/2009 | Departmental Top Structure Chart – includes STOs and Overseas offices. |
| 10/8/2009 | Documents pertaining to new English language requirements for migration agents. |
| 27/08/2009 | Documents relating to the collaborative work between the Department, the Attorney-General's Department and the courts as described in the Secretary's review in the 2007-08 annual report. |
| 27/08/2009 | Notes for Guidance for Medical Officers of the Commonwealth. |
| 08/09/2009 | Documents regarding child protection issues associated with migration applications and sponsors of concern. |
Obtaining copies of the documents
Members of the media can request copies of the above documents by telephoning or emailing the media team.
Telephone: 02 6264 2244
Email: natcomms@immi.gov.au
Members of the public can request copies of the above documents by email.
Email: foi@immi.gov.au