Annual Report 2009/2010 - Hawkesbury City Council - NSW ...

Access to Information
New Regime
The Council takes great care to maintain and manage records that include Microfiche, Hard Copy
Files/Documents and Electronic Records. Emphasising the importance of this, the Council employees
dedicated staff to manage records effectively.
Council's computerised records management system ensures that all records are well managed and retained
over specified periods of time in accordance with the Local Government Act 1993 and State Records Act
1998. All Council's business documentation is entered into this system and distributed to the appropriate area
for action, thus allowing the Council to respond faster to correspondence and requests. In addition, paper
documentation is kept on site and at the Government Records Repository at Kingswood.
On 1 July 2010 new right to information legislation came into effect, replacing the Freedom of Information Act
and section 12 of the Local Government Act.
The new law called Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 or GIPA Act:
• creates new rights to information that are designed to meet community expectations of more open
and transparent government
• encourages government agencies (including local councils) to proactively release government
information.
In meeting the new access regime Council, on 29 June 2010 adopted an Access to Information Policy. The
objective of the policy is to describe Council’s principles regarding public access to information and to
facilitate the processing of requests for such access. The policy is supported by Access to Information
Guidelines. It has also prepared a Publications Guide which identifies, amongst other things, information held
by Council and provides advise what information is available free of charge.
Council, on 29 June 2010, also revised its Privacy Management Plan in accordance with the Privacy and
Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) to protect the public from disclosure of personal information.
2009/2010 Annual Report Page 131