Commencement of the Public Records Act 2023

As many of you will be aware, the Public Records Act 2023 (Qld) (PR Act) commenced on 5 December 2024. The PR Act, like the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) (RTI Act), is an integral part of Queensland’s information integrity framework.

Given the close association between public records and the RTI Act, the PR Act is referenced in many of the OIC’s guidelines, which have been updated for the commencement of the new PR Act. Most of these changes are minor, but for others, the new PR Act has resulted in a substantive change:

• Ministerial applications and Machinery of Government changes

• Documents of an agency and documents of a Minister

• Managing access to digital video recordings

Agencies should ensure they review the updated guidelines to familiarise themselves with the changes.

Information on the new PR Act can be found here: Public Records Act. For more information on the RTI Act, please contact the OIC Enquiries Service on 07 3234 7373 or enquiries@oic.qld.gov.au.