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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Snapshot of Victoria and FOI

The Victorian Ombudsman's annual report tabled in Parliament recently includes about the investigation of complaints about Freedom of Information matters. Complaints were down by 4% on last year, perhaps reflecting improvement resulting from the Ombudsman's highly critical special report on the operation of the Act last year.

The report found several cases involved misleading reasons for claiming exemptions and some decisions that showed little regard for the objectives of the Act. "Some agencies took advantage of every available exemption to provide as little material as possible".

Delay, beyond the 45 day time limit, and an inability to locate files were also identified as ongoing issues of concern.

The FOI section is at page 20 in the report.

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