Access to Information Policy

All persons working for or engaged by the Department in either a paid or unpaid capacity must comply with this policy. For the purposes of this policy, this includes:

• all Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport employees both within Australia and outside of Australia (including ongoing, temporary, and casual and those on secondment to the Department)
• contractors and agency staff engaged who perform work for, or on behalf of the Department
• work experience students and volunteers
• consultants who undertake public official functions
• board and committee members.

The Department is committed to taking active steps to meet the core objects of the GIPA Act, to maintain and advance a system of responsible and representative democratic Government that is open, accountable, fair and effective, by making government information available to the public by:

• authorising and encouraging the proactive public release of government information
• giving members of the public an enforceable right to access government information
• providing that access to government information is restricted only when there is an overriding public interest against disclosure.

We are committed to creating an open and accessible information culture to meet our requirements under the GIPA Act. We do this by:

• ensuring that staff are aware of information access responsibilities by conducting targeted campaigns, training and providing intranet resources
• our Senior Executives promoting awareness of information access responsibilities and fostering an open access culture within the Department
• continuously improving access to our policies, programs, and other information via our websites
• annually updating our Agency Information Guide and ensuring that we make open access information available on our website
• proactively releasing information in accordance with our Proactive Release Policy
• where appropriate, making government information open by default and providing access to information informally on request
• publishing on our website clear guidance for how members of the public can request access to information
• having a dedicated information access team in our Legal Division to coordinate compliance with our legislative obligations and deal with requests for information.

For further information please contact our Information Access team at information@dciths.nsw.gov.au.

The Department may amend this policy from time to time as appropriate.