NSW Treasury formal request for information

If your application is valid, we will reply to you within 5 working days to let you know we have received your application. 

For your application to be valid, you must:

• complete the GIPA Access application form
• clearly state that you are making a request under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009
• pay the $30.00 application fee via EFT payment to the NSW Treasury bank account. If you are unable to make an EFT payment, contact us at gipa@treasury.nsw.gov.au
• give us a return postal or email address so we can correspond with you
• include as much detail of the information as necessary to help us find the information you are looking for.

If your application is invalid, we will write to you and let you know and will help you fix any issues. 

We will firstly reply to you within 5 working days to let you know we have received your application.

We have 20 working days to decide your access application. An extension of 10 to 15 days may apply to allow for consultation with a third party or retrieval of records from the archives. 

You will need to pay a $30.00 application fee (Treasury has the discretion to waive or reduce the application fee). We may also apply a $30.00 per hour processing charge after the first hour to search for and copy the requested information (unless you have asked for your personal information).

A financial hardship discount of 50 per cent of the processing charge may apply if you can provide evidence that you are:

• the holder of a Pensioner Concession card issued by the Australian Government that is in force
• a full-time student
• a not-for-profit organisation, including a person applying for or on behalf of a not-for-profit organisation.

A special benefit discount of up to 50 per cent of the processing charge may apply if you can demonstrate that the information is of special benefit to the public generally.

We may ask you to pay an advance deposit if significant costs are involved in meeting your request for information. We will give you 4 weeks to pay the deposit. The time allowed to finalise your application does not include the 4 weeks allowed to pay the advance deposit. 

We will refund the deposit paid if we do not complete your application on time.

We will try to make information available whenever possible. If we decide that giving you access to all or some of the information is contrary to the public interest, we will withhold the information. We will provide detailed reasons for withholding the information in our Notice of Decision.

There are certain types of information (as in Schedule 1 of the GIPA Act) where the NSW Treasury has no choice but to refuse access in all situations. The following are examples only:

• cabinet Information
• executive Council Information
• legal professional privilege information

If you are not happy with a decision that is a reviewable decision, you have three review options:

• internal review
• review by the NSW Information Commissioner
• review by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

You can ask for an internal review within 20 working days of a Notice of Decision. We will arrange for the review to be performed by an authorised officer who did not make the original decision and is not subordinate to the original decision-maker. A Notice of Decision for the internal review will be issued within 15 working days. 

You can submit the application for an internal review of a reviewable decision.

Alternatively, an independent review may be requested from the NSW Information Commissioner or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.