The Family Responsibilities Commission (FRC) is committed to transparency, accountability and an open flow of information to the community.
The relevant legislation is:
The legislation aims to make more information available, provide equal access to information across all sectors of the community, and provide protection for individual privacy and handling of personal information.
The FRC will release information administratively as a matter of course, unless there is a good reason not to, with applications under the Right to Information Act 2009 being necessary only as a last resort.
Under the RTI Act, the public has a right of access to information in FRC’s possession or under FRC’s control unless, on balance, it is contrary to the public interest to provide the information.
The information on this page outlines how the FRC makes:
You have a right to request access to any non-personal information held by the FRC ie information that doesn’t include your personal information.
The RTI Act promotes the release of information held by FRC unless:
You also a have a right to:
Before starting a formal RTI application process, check to see if the information you are seeking is already available.
Our Publication Scheme describes and categorises information routinely available. It has been developed to give the community greater access to information held by the FRC.
Information that the FRC routinely publishes includes information:
We also publish de-identified non-sensitive data on our Open Data Portal. The Open Data Portal provides anyone with easy access a wide range of datasets and other information of interest to the public.
The FRC Disclosure Log provides details of information that has been released in response to non-personal Right to Information requests under the RTI Act.
Under section 78B of the RTI Act, certain information will not however be contained in the documents published on the disclosure log. For example, the following information will have been removed prior to release and will not be contained in documents available for access:
To date the FRC has not received an RTI request. There will therefore not be any documents found in the Disclosure Log at the present time. Where future RTI requests are made, any documents released in response to such an application will be contained in the FRC’s Disclosure Log.
The FRC publishes a range of other information which is accessible on our website:
The FRC business area you have been working with may be able to provide you with the information you are seeking without the need for you to make a formal RTI Access Application.
Contact the person you have been dealing with at the FRC, or the FRC Registrar to make an enquiry.
The FRC person or business area you have been working with, may be able to provide you with access to or amendment of your personal information without the need for you to make a formal application. Contact us to ask.
Sometimes, we can only release information through the formal application process.
If the information you seek is not available in another way then you will need to make a formal application under the RTI Act.
Prior to making an application please contact the FRC Registrar to discuss the documents you are seeking.
To apply for access to documents, you must:
Your right of access is to documents that are in the possession or under the control of the FRC at the time of your application. As an example, documents can include paper or other material with writing, electronic records, audio and video recordings, and images.
The RTI Act doesn’t however provide you with a right to:
If the information you are requesting does not contain your personal information, you will be required to pay an application fee. Charges are set by the State Government. The current application fee is: $59.60, and is payable at time of submitting the application. This fee can never be waived.
No application fee is payable if the documents you are applying for contain your personal information.
It is important to know that even though you submit a RTI application, the FRC may not provide you with the information you are seeking.
The FRC does not have to process your application if:
You can apply for review if the FRC makes one of these decisions, and you disagree with that decision.
Processing charges may apply to applications involving non-personal documents.
The processing charges for application are:
FRC will provide you with a charge estimate notice if charges are applicable to your application.
Processing charges don’t apply to any time we spend processing documents that contain your personal information.
There is no access charge for documents provided by email.
If you require printed copies of the documents, access charges will apply. The access charge for A4 black and white copies will increase to .30 cents.
Access charges may also apply to other activities we’re required to undertake to give you access to the documents, such as transcribing audio recordings.
Application fees cannot be waited.
Processing and access fees can be waived if you are in financial hardship. The RTI says you are in financial hardship if you are named on a:
Under the RTI Act, an application can be made for access to information the FRC holds about deceased people.
Family of the deceased have no automatic entitlement to access information about a deceased person, and Applications from family members must be dealt with in the same way as applications from any other applicant.
If you believe the FRC holds personal information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading, you may be able to correct it. If you are a parent, you may be able to correct your child’s personal information.
The first step is to simply contact us to ask us to change the information.
If the information you want changed is a fact that can be verified, this should be a simple process. For example, if you change your address or your name, updating it with us should be straightforward.
Otherwise, you can make a formal amendment application under the RTI Act.
If you believe that your personal information in a document held by the FRC is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading, you can apply to have this information amended.
You must have had access to the information you want changed. For example, you may have been given a copy of it, seen it on a computer screen, or been told it over the phone.
You must know the actual words or numbers in the document that you think are incorrect.
You should therefore contact us first to change the information if you haven’t already done this by asking us informally.
To apply for amendment of your personal information, you must:
Explain to us:
You should also provide us with copies of any evidence you have that shows that the information is incorrect (ie inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading).
If you’re applying on behalf of another person (e.g. a child or relative, a friend, a client) for access to documents containing that person’s personal information, in addition to the above requirements you’ll also need to provide:
The definition of personal information does not usually include information about deceased people.
Despite this, the RTI Act allows the following people to apply to amend the information of a deceased person if they believe it is incorrect:
You can apply:
You can apply for access to documents or amend your personal information using our online portals.
Your application will be directed to us automatically.
You can apply for access to documents or to amend your personal information by downloading and completing the requisite form:
Once you have downloaded and completed the form submit it to us:
You can submit your application to us by email. You don’t have to use the Right to Information application form, but your application must meet the requirements for an access or amendment application.
The FRC has 25 business days to process your application.
The 25 business days does not start until your application is valid. It is valid when it meets all of the RTI Act’s requirements. The FRC will let you know if there is a problem with your application and will tell you how to fix it.
The time to process your application can also be extended in certain circumstances.
If we don’t make a decision in time, we’re taken to have made a decision – known as a deemed decision – to refuse access to or amendment of the documents referred to in your application. You can apply to the OIC for an external review if this happens.
If you’re dissatisfied with the decision we make about your application, you can apply for a review of the decision. You can do this by:
An application for review must be made within 20 business days of the date on the FRC’s written decision – not from when you received the notice. You don’t need to have had an internal review before applying for an external review.
A deemed decision can only be reviewed through an external review.
There is no fee for internal or external review applications.
Family Responsibilities Commission
Registrar
(07) 4081 8400 or 1800 004 973 (free call)
frcenquiry@frcq.org.au
PO Box 5438 CAIRNS QLD 4870
184 Mulgrave Road, CAIRNS QLD 4870
