Calculating Christmas Timeframes

November 27, 2023 - 2:27pm

OIC confirms that only notified public holidays are excluded when calculating due dates. For the 2023/2024 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 – Monday 25 December 2023
  • Boxing Day Public Holiday – Tuesday, 26 December 2023
  • New Year’s Day Public Holiday- Monday, 1 January 2024

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 applicants and ask for a further specified period before a deemed decision is taken to have been made.

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*The Holidays Act 1983 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.