2025 Christmas closure timeframes under the RTI and IP Act
OIC confirms that only notified public holidays do not count when calculating due dates under the RTI and IP Act. For the 2025/2026 Christmas/New Year period, the following days are public holidays* for the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) and the Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act):
- Christmas Day Public Holiday – Thursday, 25 December 2025
- Boxing Day Public Holiday – Friday, 26 December 2025
- New Year’s Day Public Holiday – Thursday, 1 January 2026
All other weekdays in this period, besides those listed above, are business days and must be counted when calculating due dates, even if your agency is closed. Agencies and Ministers need to ensure that any due dates which fall during this period are carefully calculated.
In some circumstances it may be necessary to contact access or amendment applicants and ask for a further specified period to extend the processing period before a deemed decision is taken to have been made.
Agencies or Ministers dealing with privacy complaints may need to ask the complainant for a further specified period to extend the response period.
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*The Holidays Act 1983 (Qld) also provides for a public holiday on December 24th from 6:00 pm, but it does not apply when calculating timeframes under the RTI or IP Act. It only applies for the purposes of calculating entitlements under specified industrial and employment legislation.
