Holiday timeframes for access and amendment applications
OIC confirms that only notified public holidays do not count when calculating timeframes under the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) and the Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act).
For the 2024/2025 Christmas/New Year period, the following days are public holidays* for the RTI and IP Acts:
- Christmas Day Public Holiday – Wednesday, 25 December 2024
- Boxing Day Public Holiday – Thursday, 26 December 2024
- New Year’s Day Public Holiday – Wednesday, 1 January 2025
All other weekdays in this period, besides those listed above, are business days and must be counted when calculating timeframes, 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.
