Access to Information

Council holds a large amount of current and historic information about our city and its activities. We make this information available to the public in line with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 – or GIPA for short.

In the past, this has also been called Freedom of Information.

There are several ways you can find or ask for information held by us:

1. Search our website

We can’t put everything online, but we try to publish as much useful information as we can.

We also keep several information registers so you can see what types of information we have.

2. Make an informal GIPA request

You can ask for information that’s not already available to the public by making an informal GIPA request.

There are two types of informal GIPA requests:

• General Information
• Development Application Information.

There’s no cost to make an informal application. However fees may apply for information provided on USB or CD, or photocopied documents. Current costs are shown in our Fees and Charges.

Use the button below to make an informal GIPA request.

3. Make a formal GIPA request

If you can’t get the information you want through one of the methods above, you will need to make a formal application.

Formal requests are often needed for:

• large amounts of information
• when we need to do an in-depth search to find what you want
• information that includes someone else’s personal or business details
• other sensitive information.

You will need to pay a compulsory $30 fee to make a formal application. You may also be charged additional processing fees in line with the GIPA Act.

Use the form below to make a formal GIPA request:

Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 - Formal Access Application  PDF, 61.14 KB

Not sure what type of application to make? Email or call us on (02) 4227 7111 and we can point you in the right direction.

You may also like to read our Agency Information Guide.