Waiving fees in Australia

Waiving fees in Australia

In Re Stephanie Peatling and Department of Employment and Workplace Relations [2007] AATA 1011, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered whether the fees for processing a media outlet's request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) should be reduced on the grounds of public interest.

The Tribunal decided that even though there were considerable public interest grounds to support a waiver of the fees, the countervailing "commercial benefit" that a media outlet would derive from the release of the documents outweighed the public interest in the release of the relevant documents.

Australia: When Does The Public Interest Require FOI Fees To Be Waived? (Mondaq, 13 September 2007)