Which Act and IPOLA changes

Queensland’s Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) and Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act) allow people to access documents from Queensland government agencies and Ministers, subject to limitations in the Acts.

The primary difference between the Acts is that, under the IP Act, an applicant can only apply for documents that contain their personal information. This includes applications made on behalf of an individual, eg a lawyer applying for their client, because the individual is the applicant.  The presence or absence of the agent’s personal information in the documents is irrelevant.

There is no application fee or processing charges under the IP Act, and no processing charges under the RTI Act for documents that contain the applicant’s personal information.

At the moment, if an agency or Minister receives an IP application for documents that will not contain the applicant’s personal information, the applicant (or their agent) must be given  the choice to remove the non-personal documents or moving the whole application to the RTI Act. If the applicant does neither, the agency or Minister will refuse to deal with the application.  The agency cannot make this choice for the applicant. Conversely, if an agency or Minister receives an RTI application for documents that will all contain the applicant’s personal information, the agency must let the applicant (or their agent) know they can—but aren’t required to—move it to the IP Act.

However, these arrangements for moving between the two Acts will end when the Information Privacy and Other legislation Amendment Act 2023 (IPOLA) commences.

IPOLA will create a single right of access to Queensland government documents, which means all access applications received on or after 1 July 2025 will be RTI Act applications. There will continue to be no processing charges for documents that contain the applicant’s personal information. Whether or not every document applied for contains the applicant’s personal information will only impact whether or not an application fee is payable. If every document requested doesn’t contain the applicant’s personal information, they must pay the application fee. If they don’t pay the fee, the agency or Minister can make a noncompliance decision.

This guideline has more Information on the current operation of the Acts: Applications made under the wrong Act and this one has information on the IPOLA changes: IPOLA Guideline - Basic Guide to Changes to the RTI Act.

For more information, contact the OIC Enquiries Service on 07 3234 7373 or enquiries@oic.qld.gov.au.