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House of Representatives                                Ch 19                                                 p 724

Freedom of information

Section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 states:

A document is an exempt document if public disclosure of the document would, apart from this Act and any immunity of the Crown . . . :

(a) be in contempt of court;

(b) be contrary to an order made or direction given by a Royal Commission or by a tribunal or other person or body having power to take evidence on oath; or

(c) infringe the privileges of the Parliament of the Commonwealth or of a State or of a House of such a Parliament or of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory or of Norfolk Island.

The Department of the House of Representatives, along with the other parliamentary departments, is excluded from the operation of the Act, being neither a department of state nor a ‘prescribed authority’ as defined in the Act. ¹ It seeks, however, to comply with the intent of the Act where practicable in relation to the release of administrative information. The Department has released documents unless they would have fallen within an exemption under the Act or where a request would have been refused under the Act.

Similarly, the definition of ‘Department’ in the Privacy Act 1988 excludes the Parliamentary Departments, and this is complemented by s. 81 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999.