This page provides an overview of your rights under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) together with details of information released by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust (Harbour Trust) pursuant to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
This page also satisfies our requirement under the information Publication Scheme (IPS) to publish a broad range of information our website.
For more information, including access to the Harbour Trust’s information or documents under the FOI Act, contact our FOI Contact Officer on (02) 8969 2100 or by email at foi@harbourtrust.gov.au.
The FOI Act gives any person the right to:
You can ask to see any document that we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.
How to make a request
Your request must:
By post:
FOI Contact Officer
Harbour Trust
PO Box 607, Mosman NSW 2088, Australia
By email:
If you ask a third party to make an FOI request on your behalf, you need to provide a specific, written authority to send copies of documents to you, care of that person, or to allow that person to inspect copies of documents containing information about you.
If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Contact Officer by email at foi@harbourtrust.gov.au
Fees and charges
There is no application fee for an FOI request. There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you. However, processing charges may apply to other requests. The most common charges are:
Activity | Charge |
Search and retrieval: time we spend searching for or retrieving a document. | $15.00 per hour |
Decision making: time we spend in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions. | First five hours: Nil Subsequent hours: $20.00 per hour |
Transcript: preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium. | $4.40 per page of transcript |
Photocopy | $0.10 per page |
Inspection: supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at our premises. | $6.25 per half hour (or part thereof) |
Delivery: posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request. | Cost of postage or delivery |
If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.
You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.
What you can expect from us
We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will also give you an estimate of the charges that apply to your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.
Review Processes
If you disagree with our decision
When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.
You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:
A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.
Internal review
You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision within 30 days of receiving your request.
Information Commissioner review
You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at www.oaic.gov.au.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC's website at www.oaic.gov.au.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.
Further information
If you require further information, please contact the Harbour Trust’s FOI Contact Officer on 02-89692100 or by email at foi@harbourtrust.gov.au.
Subsection 11C (3) of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish on their websites details of information released pursuant to FOI requests received by them.
The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:
In accordance with those requirements, summaries of information/documents released by the Harbour Trust are set out below
Please note: A document published on the disclosure log may be an edited version of the document originally provided to an applicant because of an exception in s 11C (1) of the FOI Act.
Anyone wishing to obtain copies of these documents should do so by contacting the FOI Officer at the following address: foi@harbourtrust.gov.au
Summary of documents released
FOI reference number | Date of access | Scope of request | Information published in disclosure log |
SH2011/0331 | 19/1/2012 | Information on the evaluation process for the Platypus Wharf repair works tender. | Full access to the applicants comparative tender evaluation results was provided. |
SH2013/0039 | 6/3/2013 | Document relating to decision to cancel Outpost 2013 Street Art Event. | 5 documents with 3 released in full and 2 edited copies. |
14/009177 | 24/9/2014 | Documents relating to HMAS Platypus. | 1 document released with personal information redacted and 4 documents refused access. |
15/017829 | 10/12/2015 | Documents relating to DA plans for Building 20 Chowder Bay. | 7 documents released in full. |
17/004749 | 1/9/2017 | Documents relating to Environmental Assessments for North Head Sanctuary, Manly NSW. | 20 documents released in full; 41 documents released in part. |
17/005390 | 19/10/2017 | Tenancy information for Building 26, Georges Heights Training Command Precinct. | 26 documents released in part. |
2019/0001 | 03/05/2019 | Email Correspondence | 1 document released in part |
2019/002 | 23/5/2019 | Sub-Base Platypus information | 19 documents released in full; 4 documents released in part; 5 exempt in full |
Part II of the FOI Act establishes the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) for Australian government agencies subject to the FOI Act, including the Harbour Trust. The IPS commenced on 1 May 2011 and requires the Harbour Trust to publish a broad range of information on its website, and to make that information available online where possible. For more information about the Information Publication Scheme, visit the OAIC website.
The Harbour Trust’s IPS Agency Plan (see below) proposes how we propose to meet our requirement to comply with the IPS requirements. In addition to what is outlined in our IPS Agency Plan, we address on this page the following nine categories of information required by the FOI Act:
IPS Agency Plan
Section 8(1) of the FOI Act imposes an obligation on the Harbour Trust to publish an IPS Agency Plan, which describes how we propose to comply with the IPS requirements. Our IPS Agency Plan is required to set out the following information:
Who We are
This section provides information on the structure and organisation of the Harbour Trust, including statutory appointments.
What we do
This section provides access to information about the functions and powers of the Harbour Trust
Our reports and responses to Parliament
Consultation arrangements
This section provides access to information on community involvement and community consultation processes.
Routinely requested information
The Harbour Trust will publish the information it releases to FOI applicants as part of its FOI Disclosure log, published on this page.
Operational information
The Harbour Trust publishes on its website a wide range of information used by the agency to assist in the exercise of its functions and powers in making decisions or recommendations that affect members of the public. This information includes (but is not limited to) agency rules, guidelines, practices and precedents, and policy documents.