FOI Applications:
Commonwealth Attorney-General's Dept. 2005/2006

Last Updated: 28 February 2006

On 15 December 2005, EFA lodged a Freedom of Information Application with the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department seeking copies of each submission made to the Fair Use Review of copyright law.

On 13 January 2006, the Department informed EFA by email that "the majority of the submissions in response to the Fair Use Issues Paper of 5 May 2005 are now available on the Attorney-General's Department website. ... The availability of these documents satisfies the majority of part 1 of your FOI request." The submissions to the Fair Use Review are available here.

The reason that only "the majority" of the submissions were published appears to be that some submissions were provided on a confidential basis. Under Commonwealth Freedom of Information laws, a document is exempt if its disclosure would 'found an action ... for breach of confidence'.