Right to information at NSW Treasury

The GIPA Act 2009 helps you, by making government information available. The GIPA Act states that:

• government agencies need to make certain types of information openly available
• government agencies are asked to proactively release as much other information as possible
• you have the legal rights to make both an informal and formal request for government information
• restricting access to information only when there is an overriding public interest against disclosure.

The GIPA Act 2009 works with other access-to-information systems in NSW. The main system is the Personal Information and Privacy Protection Act 1998 (PIPP Act). The PIPP Act gives you access to, and to apply for the amendment of, information held about you by NSW government agencies. 

For more details, visit the NSW Privacy Commissioner website.

The GIPA Act gives the public with a right to access government information, unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure. The GIPA Act applies to information that has always been publicly available, for example annual reports. It also applies to information produced at every operational level within a government agency for example, reports and policies.

The Freedom of Information Act 1989 (FOI Act) focused on documents, the GIPA Act uses a wide definition of ‘information’ which applies to information that is compiled, recorded, or stored electronically as well as in hard copy form.

Treasury Functions

A central agency with a wide responsibility for policy advice and direction, Treasury serves the Treasurer and the government by providing economic and financial advice for the overall management of the State's finances. This includes expenditure, revenue, and risk management strategies.

Treasury prepares the Budget and the Consolidated Financial Statements for the State. We also issue directions on accounting and financial matters to public sector agencies through the Treasurer's Directions, Treasury Circulars, and Statements of Best Practice.

The Secretary of Treasury is the employer of the NSW Public Service for industrial purposes and is responsible for the central management of NSW public sector industrial relations functions. As a principal department in the NSW Public Sector, Treasury has administrative responsibility for the following entities:

• Crown Finance Entity
• State Rail Authority Residual Holding Corporation
• Liability Management Ministerial Corporation
• Electricity Assets Ministerial Holding Corporation
• Ports Assets Ministerial Holding Corporation
• Electricity Transmission Ministerial Holding Corporation
• Alpha Distribution Ministerial Holding Corporation 
• Epsilon Distribution Ministerial Holding Corporation
• Ministerial Holding Corporation.

The following entities fall within the Treasury cluster, but are not directly administered by NSW Treasury:

• Treasury Corporation (TCorp)
• Insurance and Care NSW (icare)
• SAS Trustee Corporation 
• Newcastle Port Corporation (Port Authority of NSW)
• Zeal Futures (previously Hunter Valley Training Company Pty Ltd)
• Electricity Retained Interest Corporation – Ausgrid
• Electricity Retained Interest Corporation – Endeavour Energy
• Roads Retained Interests Pty Ltd – Sydney Motorway Corporation.

Our annual reports have more information about NSW Treasury, its activities and its legislation.

Treasury is led by an Executive Board made up of the Secretary, five Deputy Secretaries and two rotating Senior Executives. Each Deputy Secretary leads a group and together are responsible for delivering Treasury’s strategy and goals.

Visit Our Treasury team and groups for more information about our structure.

The economy

Most of Treasury’s functions affect the public indirectly. Treasury’s corporate vision is to work towards ongoing prosperity for the people of NSW. Our key commitment to the public is to provide advice to government designed to deliver such prosperity and to sustain it over time. By providing economic and financial advice for the overall management of the State's finances, Treasury influences:

• business confidence 
• jobs growth and employment opportunities 
• the range and standard of public services (for example, health, education, and transport services). 

Infrastructure

Treasury partners with other NSW Government agencies and other non-government delivery partners to deliver infrastructure projects and create a strong and sustainable NSW economy.

Public participation

While our key customers are other NSW Government departments and agencies on behalf of the people of NSW, we are committed to working closely with stakeholders and the wider community to improve services and achieve better outcomes for NSW.

If you would like to make any suggestions or leave feedback, you can complete and submit our Contact us form.

Public consultation associated with major policy developments generally occurs through the host departments and authorities.

For projects and policy reforms being hosted by Treasury, dedicated lines of communication with the public and external stakeholders are set up on a case-by-case basis.

Productivity and Equality Commission

The Productivity and Equality Commission has created an online portal where citizens and businesses can report problems with regulations and suggest ideas to make things easier. 

For more details, visit the Productivity and Equality Commission.

Visualising the Budget

The Budget Data Visualisation tool is an interactive tool allowing you to view the major expenses and revenues for each agency within Treasury’s cluster, for each financial year. It makes it easy to see where funds are generated, as well as distributed and spent. For more information visit, www.budget.nsw.gov.au

Feedback 

We welcome your questions, feedback, compliments and complaints as well as any suggestions of how we can improve. You can provide your feedback through our website, via email or call us on (02) 9228 4567.

We hold a wide range of information relating to our functions and operations. These are the major categories of information and the types of information in each category.

A wide range of information is available free of charge on our website.

Mandatory open access Information

Mandatory open access information is information we must make publicly available unless it is not in the public interest to do so.

We make the following mandatory open access information available free of charge:

• Agency Information Guide
• policy documents
• disclosure log
• register of government contracts
• documents tabled in Parliament
• record of open access information not publicly available
• major assets list
• property disposal list
• guarantee of service
• Code of Conduct.

For further information, visit our Open access information.

Proactive release

We need to have a program for the proactive release of government information. Proactive disclosure is how we consider making information publicly available unless it is against the public interest.

Find out more about our Proactive Release Policy.

Information proactively disclosed by us is made available on one of Treasury's websites, on www.opengov.nsw.gov.au or other appropriate outlets.

If the information you are looking for is not on our website, you can suggest that the information be proactively disclosed (if held by Treasury). Please send any suggestions to the Information Access Unit at gipa@treasury.nsw.gov.au.

Open data

We are committed to improving transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation by increasing access to government information.

We are committed to the NSW Government Open Data Policy and look to make appropriate government data available to the public.

Some datasets, including those containing private and commercially sensitive information, must be protected appropriately. It may be necessary to remove personal or identifying information from datasets, in line with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and other applicable legislation.

Datasets that are subject to release will be published on one of Treasury’s websites or at www.data.nsw.gov.au

Informal request

You can request information from us on any topic of interest. If the information is clearly in the public interest to disclose, it will be supplied free of charge.

We may attach conditions on the disclosure of information that is sensitive or confidential but relevant to the person making the request. Under the GIPA Act, there is no right of review for informal applications.

If you would like to make an informal request for information, you can contact the Information Access Unit at gipa@treasury.nsw.gov.au.

Find our more information about making an informal request for information.

Formal request (access application)

If the information you are looking for is not on our website and we cannot provide it to you as an informal request for information, you can submit a formal access application providing there is no overriding public interest against disclosure.

A formal access application for information should be a last-resort option for accessing government information. We will decide your formal access application within 20 working days (subject to any extension allowed for under the Act). If an extension of time is required to deal with your application, we will advise you in writing.

Find out more information about submitting a formal access application (including fees, charges, review rights and how to submit a valid application.)

You can send your formal request for information to:

Associate Director, Information Access 
NSW Treasury 
GPO Box 5469 
SYDNEY NSW 2001

Fees and charges

There is $30.00 application fee for formal requests made under the GIPA Act. We have the discretion to remove or reduce the application fee.  

We may also charge $30.00 per hour after the first hour for our time in processing an application. The application fee counts towards the first hour of processing your application. A 50 per cent reduction in processing fees may apply if you can provide evidence to either of the following points:

• you would suffer financial hardship 
• the information is of special benefit to the public generally

If applying for your own personal information, Treasury cannot charge for the first 20 hours of processing.

Find out more information about fees and charges, at Formal request for information.

Information Access and Governance Unit

If you have any questions or need advice about accessing the information held by us, you can contact the Information Access Unit at gipa@treasury.nsw.gov.au or call (02) 9228 3232. You can also write to:  

Associate Director, Information Access

NSW Treasury 
GPO Box 5469 
SYDNEY NSW 2001

NSW Information and Privacy Commissioner

You can find out more about your right to government information from the Office of the Information Commissioner at ipcinfo@ipc.nsw.gov.au or call 1800 472 679. You can also write to:

NSW Information Commissioner  
Level 15, McKell Building,
2-24 Rawson Place,  
Haymarket NSW 2000

More information on the NSW Information Commissioner is available at www.ipc.nsw.gov.au