Right to Information

How to access information

The Right to Information Act 2009 and Information Privacy Act 2009 came into effect on 1 July 2009, replacing the Freedom of Information Act 1992.

Due to the amendments introduced by the Information Privacy and Other Legislation Amendments Act 2023, from 1 July 2025, all requests to access information, including access solely to your own personal information, held by the Queensland Government will be managed under the Right to Information Act 2009.

Right to Information is the Queensland Government’s approach to giving the community greater access to information. We are committed to provide access to information held by the government, unless on balance it is contrary to the public interest to provide that information.

You have a right to access personal and non-personal information held by us under the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act).

This legislation gives the community greater access to information (where it isn’t contrary to the public interest to do so) and provides equal access to information across all community sectors, and provides protection for individuals’ privacy.

Searching for information

Before applying for information, check to see if it is already available on our website.

Information about our services and business operations may be accessed through the following avenues:

• Publication scheme: contains a guide and links to the information that we routinely make available on our website.
• Disclosure log: non-personal information released through RTI applications will be available to the public. At this time, no documents considered suitable for inclusion have been requested or released.

If you can't find the information you are looking for on our website, contact our Right to Information and information privacy coordinator by emailing corporatelao@lao.org.au.

They will determine if the information can be released through our free Administrative access scheme or if you will need to make a formal Right to information (RTI) or Information privacy (IP) application.

Administrative access scheme

Our Administrative access scheme makes it easier, faster and cheaper for you to access certain documents.

You can apply for administrative access to:

• all the documents you have given to us ('the Office')
• all the documents the Office has given to you
• documents which are publicly available.

There is no fee for administrative access.

If you would like to apply for administrative access to documents, please write to us or send an email (with ‘Administrative access request’ in the subject line), and provide the following information:

• which documents you want
• whether you would like the documents to be given to you in hardcopy
• how you would like the documents delivered (by email, to a street or postal address or for collection at our office)
• a certified copy of one of your identity documents for verification (our administrative access policy (PDF, 51KB) has more information about this)

Please note that if a document contains the personal or commercial information of more than one person, the information will only be accessible through administrative access when all parties have given prior written consent.

If you have any questions about how to request administrative access to documents, please contact us.

Accessing information under the RTI Act

If you want to apply for documents that contain non-personal information, you can make a Right to information application. There is an initial application fee of $59.60 (excl. GST). If the agency spends more than 5 hours the charge is calculated at $9.25 (excl. GST) for each 15 minutes (or part thereof) spent processing the application.

If the documents you want only contain your own personal information, there is no application fee and there are no processing charges under the RTI Act.

The agency may also charge 30 cents per A4 page if the applicant wishes to receive black and white photocopies. No charge will apply if the applicant wishes to access documents via email or electronic access (e.g. a OneDrive link).

Credit card details will not be accepted for payment of the application fee via mail, email, hard copy via post, facsimile or telephone. Credit card payments can only be accepted as part of an online application process or following the provision of a unique BPOINT payment link, issued by our office.

Cheques for these payments are no longer able to be accepted and processed by this agency. Any cheque that is received will be returned to sender and you will be advised to utilise a BPOINT payment link, issued by our office.

Requesting information

You can request information by applying online.

Alternatively, you can download the Right to information and information privacy information access application form and submit it:

• in person at any government service centre
• by email: rtiservices@detsi.qld.gov.au
• by post to Right to Information Services, GPO Box 2454, Brisbane, QLD 4001

Timeframes

Valid applications must be processed within 25 business days of receipt. A further 10 business days can be added if we need to consult with third parties.

The agency may negotiate a further extension of time with the applicant if further processing time is required. This extension of time does not affect an applicant's right of review.

Amending personal information

You can apply to have any of your personal information held by the Queensland Government amended if you believe it is:

• inaccurate
• incomplete
• out of date
• misleading

If you believe your personal information held by us is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading, you can apply to have it amended by completing the Information privacy personal information amendment application form and submit it to Right to Information Services at rtiservices@detsi.qld.gov.au.

Right of review

You have the right to a review of your application If you are dissatisfied with our decision.

You can apply to have a decision examined under internal review:

• This application for internal review must be received within 20 business days of the date of the letter communicating the original decision.
• Internal reviews are conducted by an officer within the department of equal or higher level to the officer who made the original decision.

You may make a request that the Office of the Information Commissioner conduct an external review if you are dissatisfied with the agency's decision/s. You can also elect to seek an external review irrespective of whether the agency has internally reviewed the decision.

• Your external review application must be made in writing to the Information Commissioner using the External Review Application Form.
• This application must be received within 20 business days of the date of the internal review decision, or within 20 business days of the original decision if you elect to bypass internal review and proceed direct to external review.

Please contact the RTI Services team at rtiservices@detsi.qld.gov.au or on telephone (07) 3330 6111 for more information regarding reviews.

Contact us

For more information please contact us or alternatively contact the Right to Information Services team at rtiservices@detsi.qld.gov.au or on (07) 3330 6111.