Freedom of Information Act 1982

PART IV - EXEMPT DOCUMENTS  

Division 2 - Exemptions  

SECTION 45A   Parliamentary Budget Office documents  

General rules

45A(1)    
A document is an exempt document if:

(a) both of the following are satisfied:

(i) the document originated from the Parliamentary Budget Officer or the Parliamentary Budget Office;

(ii) the document was prepared in response to, or otherwise relates to, a confidential request; or

(b) the document was brought into existence for the dominant purpose of providing information to the Parliamentary Budget Officer or the Parliamentary Budget Office relating to a confidential request; or

(c) the document was provided to the Parliamentary Budget Officer or the Parliamentary Budget Office in response to a request by the Parliamentary Budget Officer for more information in relation to a confidential request; or

(d) the document is a draft of a document to which paragraph (a), (b) or (c) applies.

45A(2)    
A document is an exempt document to the extent that it is a copy or part of, or contains an extract from, a document to which subsection (1) applies.

45A(3)    
A document is an exempt document to the extent that it contains information the disclosure of which would reveal that a confidential request has been made to the Parliamentary Budget Officer or the Parliamentary Budget Office, unless the existence of the request has been disclosed by the Senator or Member of the House of Representatives who made the request.

Exceptions

45A(4)    
A document is not an exempt document only because it is attached to a document to which subsection (1), (2) or (3) applies.

Note:

However, the attachment itself may be an exempt document.

45A(5)    
Information in a document to which subsection (1), (2) or (3) applies is not exempt matter because of this section if the information has been made publicly available by the Parliamentary Budget Officer:

(a) under section 64U of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 ; or

(b) in a statement made under subsection 64V(4) of that Act.

45A(6)    
Information in a document to which subsection (1), (2) or (3) applies is not exempt matter because of this section if the information has been made publicly available by the Senator or Member of the House of Representatives who made the confidential request to which the document relates.

45A(7)    
Information in a document to which subsection (1), (2) or (3) applies is not exempt matter because of this section if the information consists of purely factual material, unless:

(a) the disclosure of the information would reveal the existence of a confidential request; and

(b) the existence of the confidential request has not been disclosed by the Senator or Member of the House of Representatives who made the request.

Definition

45A(8)    
In this section:

confidential request
means a request referred to in paragraph 64E(1)(a) or (c) of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 that includes a direction under paragraph 64H(3)(d) or section 64M (as the case may be) of that Act to treat the request or any other information relating to the request as confidential.