The Victorian Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives you the right to access documents about your personal affairs and the activities of government agencies; and the right to request that incorrect or misleading information held by an agency about you be amended or removed. However, for privacy reasons not all information is automatically available. The Act allows an agency to refuse access to certain documents or information about other people, also known as “third parties”. These documents or information are often called ‘exempt’. This means that part of all of a document may be removed before it is released.
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (No. 9859) was passed on 5 January 1983 and commenced on 5 July 1983 (Part 2 commenced 5 July 1984),