Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives you the right to request access to government-held information. This includes information they hold about you or about government policies and decisions.

What you can access under FOI

You can request access to a document held by an Australia Government agency or minister, such as:

• a document that contains your personal information
• a policy-making document
• an administrative decision-making document.

You can also ask an agency or minister to amend or annotate the personal information they hold about you.

What you can’t access under FOI

You can’t access a document an Australian Government agency or minister holds that is:

• exempt under the FOI Act
• conditionally exempt under the FOI Act
• accessible to the public under other arrangements for a fee.

You can’t access a document held by an agency exempt from the FOI Act.

Publicly available documents

Before you make an FOI request, check what information is already publicly available. A range of information is regularly published on our website and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).

Visit our website for a range of publicly available information which includes:

• details of our organisational structure
• details of our functions
• details of statutory appointments
• annual reports
• information we routinely provide to Parliament
• contact details for an officer who can be contacted about access to the agency’s information or documents under the FOI Act.

Making an FOI request

Email your request to [email protected] OR send your request to:

FOI Officer
Grains Research & Development Corporation
PO Box 5637
KINGSTON ACT 2604

Your FOI request must:

• be in writing, and
• state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act, and
• state the document(s) you want, giving enough detail to help the agency or Minister to identify the document(s), and,
• provide an address or email address where the agency or Minister can send the requested document(s).

Fees and Charges

There is no charge where an individual is seeking their own personal information.

We will calculate the charge based on the amount of work needed to process your request. Charges are set by regulation (Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019) and may include:

An invoice for the charge will be provided upon request.

There is no charge for making:

• a request to an agency or minister for access to a document under Part III of the FOI Act
• an application for amendment or annotation of a personal record under Part V of the FOI Act
• an application for internal review of a decision under Part VI of the FOI Act
• an application for review by the Information Commissioner under Part VII of the FOI Act
• a complaint to the Information Commissioner under Part VIIB of the FOI Act. This may include cost incurred in copying or reproducing the information or sending it to you. We will try to meet all reasonable requests for an alternative format of the document in a timely manner and at the lowest reasonable cost to you.

Timeframes for FOI requests

Upon receiving an FOI request, we will endeavour to:

• notify you that the request has been received within 14 days of receipt
• notify you of a decision on the request within 30 days of receipt (including a decision under section 21 to defer the provision of access to a document, if applicable).

Further information about FOI can be found on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website.

GRDC Disclosure Logs

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) requires GRDC to publish disclosure logs on our website.

Overview

GRDC disclosure logs provide information that has been released in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

We try to publish the disclosure logs within 10 working days after the FOI applicant was given access to the information.

GRDC will not publish the following information on the disclosure log if it is deemed unreasonable:

• Personal information about any person
• Information about any person’s:
  • Business
  • Commercial
  • Financial or
  • Professional affairs
• Information that is not reasonably practicable to publish
• Other information covered by a determination made by the Australian Information Commissioner.

The information on the Commissioners determination covers:

• Information in a document that has been exempt at the time we gave access to the applicant.
• Information in a document that the agency or minister would have decided was exempt at the time we gave access was given to the applicant. This also applies if the request was made by someone other than the applicant.

Disclosure Logs

Obtaining copies

You can gain access to the disclosure logs by clicking on the hyperlinks provided or you can request copies of the documents by contacting us directly, only if:

• You are unable to access the documents via the hyperlinks, or
• We have not provided a hyperlink due to the size of the documents.

We do not charge for providing access to information on our FOI disclosure log.