I am very pleased to accept my appointment as the next Australian Information Commissioner, commencing 16 August 2024. It is a great honour that I accept with immense gratitude and a resolute commitment to leadership in promoting and protecting information access and privacy rights.

In both my current and upcoming position I will continue to be focused on understanding the operational environment and exploring strategies to promote information governance and the management of FOI responsibilities.

During my engagement with agency heads over the past month, I have been inspired by agency heads’ commitment to uphold the objects of the Act, respect for the OAIC’s role in the information access landscape and willingness to work with the OAIC to improve decision making at the initial stage.

I can see this commitment operationalised through the timely delivery of decisions, with a significant number of agencies achieving high rates of compliance, and through the implementation of initiatives to improve information access operations, including the establishment of surge teams, administrative access schemes and information access champions or escalation points for the OAIC. I commend this commitment and recognise that our engagement currently reflects insights gained through past aged decisions. The renewed commitment of agency heads and your current levels of timeliness provide a strong indicator that we can move beyond the past. I encourage you to apply that same active engagement to assist us in finalising aged matters.

The OAIC’s current regulatory focus is on delivery. It includes the delivery of guidance that will support agencies and ministers to meet their obligations under the FOI Act. To that end, the OAIC will continue to deliver webinars, revised Guidelines and targeted practical resources, some of which are referred to further in this newsletter. I encourage you to review the revised guidelines and engage in the consultation process for proposed revisions.

The OAIC is also committed to delivering a timely IC review process, informed by the principles of informality, responsiveness and proportionality. To support agencies and ministers to understand the expectations and steps of the IC review process, revised procedure directions and Part 10 of the FOI Guidelines will commence on 1 July 2024. The revised procedure directions follow a consultation process held in 2023. The Direction sets time standards that are governed by the objects of the FOI Act. Further information is set out below, and I encourage you to review the revised directions and practical resources ahead of the implementation date.

While there will be a more formal process to engage with the OAIC through an upcoming survey on practitioners’ guidance and training needs, I welcome feedback you may have regarding the delivery of the OAIC’s regulatory functions. The OAIC’s senior leadership contact for information access matters is Ms Rocelle Ago, Assistant Commissioner Freedom of Information.