FOI requests

Making an application under the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act)

If you wish to apply for access to one or more documents under the FOI Act, your application must:

1. be in writing (note, there is no special form)
2. state that it is a request made under the FOI Act
3. contain a sufficient description of the document/s you are seeking, so that ASIC can readily identify them
4. give details of how notices under the FOI Act may be sent to you (e.g. by providing a postal or electronic address), and
5. be posted, delivered or emailed to ASIC.

Post your application to:

Senior Manager – Freedom of Information
GPO Box 9827
Melbourne VIC 3001

Or send to email address FOIrequest@asic.gov.au.

Processing FOI requests

We are required to provide you with a decision on your request within 30 days after the day we receive it. We may extend the 30-day processing period if we need to consult third parties, or where a charge is to be imposed for processing the request or for other reasons. You will be advised if there are changes to the 30-day processing period.

Once the FOI request has been processed, any available documents will be forwarded to you once any assessed charge is paid.

We may publish some documents we release to you on our FOI disclosure log within 10 working days of providing the documents to you.

Practical refusal reasons

We may refuse to process your request if a practical refusal reason exists. This may include:

• if the request is unclear and we can’t identify the documents
• the request is too large and processing it would substantially and unreasonably divert ASIC’s resources from its other operations.

Exempt documents

We can refuse access to documents that are exempt.  Further information about FOI exemptions is available in guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website.

Processing charges for FOI requests

The FOI Act permits agencies to exercise discretion to impose charges for processing requests. Charges are generally payable for time spent processing requests and are assessed in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019. The first five hours of decision-making time is free.

If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written notice containing an estimate of the amount of charge.

You can ask for a charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. Evidence may be requested when seeking a waiver of charges.

Further information about charges is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website.

Charges are not payable:

• for accessing your own personal information
• if ASIC does not notify you of its access decision in line with the timeframes set out in the FOI Act.