What are exempt documents?

• There are two types of exemption from the freedom of information laws.
• Some information is completely exempt and the department or Minister can refuse to release it. This includes documents:
  • which may affect national security, defence or international relations;
  • relating to the enforcement of law and protection of public safety;
  • which are privileged under secrecy provisions in other legislation;
  • that are subject to legal professional privilege;
  • that would disclose material obtained in confidence;
  • where disclosure of their contents would be in contempt of Parliament or in contempt of court;
  • disclosing trade secrets or commercially valuable information (such as information which you own that gives you an advantage over your competitors so long as that information remains generally unknown);
  • protected by parliamentary privilege (such as Cabinet documents); and
  • relating to electoral rolls and the electrical rolls themselves as they contain other people’s private information. You are only entitled to access your own electoral records.
• Some other categories of information are conditionally exempt under the freedom of information laws. This includes documents relating to:
  • Commonwealth-State relations;
  • information being used by a department or agency to make a decision about an issue;
  • the Commonwealth's financial and property interests;
  • certain operations of agencies (such as audits, examinations and personnel management);
  • personal privacy;
  • business affairs;
  • research (by CSIRO or the Australian National University); and
  • Australia’s economy.
• Conditionally exempt documents will not be released if it their disclosure is assessed as being against the public interest.
• Where a document contains both exempt and non-exempt information the decision maker should consider whether the document can be released with the exempt information edited out.