Page:Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Australia).pdf/5

 rules and practices affecting members of the public in their dealings with departments and public authorities are readily available to persons affected by those rules and practices; and


 * (b) creating a general right of access to information in documentary form in the possession of Ministers, departments and public authorities, limited only by exceptions and exemptions necessary for the protection of essential public interests and the private and business affairs of persons in respect of whom information is collected and held by departments and public authorities.

(2) It is the intention of the Parliament that the provisions of this Act shall be interpreted so as to further the object set out in sub-section (1) and that any discretions conferred by this Act shall be exercised as far as possible so as to facilitate and promote, promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost, the disclosure of information.

Interpretation

4. (1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—

"agency" means a Department or a prescribed authority;

"applicant" means a person who has made a request;

"Department" means a Department of the Australian Public Service other than the Department of the Senate, the Department of the House of Representatives, the Department of the Parliamentary Library, the Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff and the Joint House Department;

"document" includes any written or printed matter, any map, plan or photograph, and any article or thing that has been so treated in relation to any sounds or visual images that those sounds or visual images are capable, with or without the aid of some other device, of being reproduced from the article or thing, and includes a copy of any such matter, map, plan, photograph, article or thing, but does not include library material maintained for reference purposes;

"document of an agency" or "document of the agency" means a document in the possession of an agency, or in the possession of the agency concerned, as the case requires, whether created in the agency or received in the agency;

"Document Review Tribunal" means the Tribunal of that name established under Part VII;

"enactment" means—


 * (a) an Act;


 * (b) an Ordinance of the Australian Capital Territory; or


 * (c) an instrument (including rules, regulations or by-laws) made under an Act or under such an Ordinance;