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Freedom Of Information

How to obtain information held by ComSuper

This page explains how you can access information held by ComSuper, including your personal information.

Contents

Personal information

You can request access to personal information we hold about you at any time, without following a formal process.

To request your personal information, you should provide your address, scheme membership number and outline what information you require.

If you request personal medical records, we may need to release this information to you through a medical practitioner of your choice.

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Accessing information under the Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (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.

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Information already published by ComSuper

You should also check the information we have published under the Information Publication Scheme on the FOI disclosure log page to see if what you are seeking is already available.

How to make a request

To request access to documents under the FOI Act your request must:

You can send an email with your request to foi@comsuper.gov.au or a letter to:

FOI Officer
ComSuper
PO Box 22
Belconnen ACT 2616

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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 any 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.

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Fees and charges

There is no application fee for an FOI request if you request access to personal information we hold about you.

ComSuper may charge you for processing other requests, and the standard charges listed below will apply.

Activity item 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 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.

More information about FOI charges is available at:

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Exempt documents

We may refuse to give you access to documents under the FOI Act because they are exempt documents. More information about exempt documents under the FOI Act is available at:

If you are refused access to documents, you will be provided with an explanation of the reasons for this decision and you can have the decision reviewed.

Sometimes we may give you a document with exempt material deleted. You will be provided with the reasons for the exemption and your review rights.

What you can do 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.

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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 or Ombudsman review

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. More information is available on the Ombudsman's website

More information

See also

Changing your personal information

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Last updated October 18, 2011