Freedom of Information

The Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) is an authority subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

The Tribunal provides access to its information and documents on its website. Individuals may request access under the FOI Act to other documents we hold.

How to make an FOI request to the Remuneration Tribunal

Requests made under the FOI Act must:

be in writing
state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
provide information about the document(s) to assist us to process your request
provide an address for reply.

Email your request to foi@remtribunal.gov.au

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the Secretariat on (02) 6202 3930 and ask to speak to the FOI Officer, or send an email to foi@remtribunal.gov.au.

Freedom of Information Disclosure Log

Fees and charges

There is no application fee to lodge an FOI request. There are no processing charges for requests to access documents containing only personal information about you. However, processing charges may apply to other requests such as for policy documents or operational material. Details are outlined in the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019.

**FOI charges**
Activity item	Charge
Search and retrieval: time we spend searching for or retrieving a document	$15.00 per hour
Decision making: time we spend in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions	First five hours: Nil Subsequent hours: $20 per hour
Photocopy	$0.10 per page
Inspection: supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents.	$6.25 per half hour (or part thereof)
Delivery: posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request	Cost of postage or delivery

What you can expect from us

We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will also give you an estimate of any charges that apply to the processing of your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them. This process may extend the time to receive your decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

Reviews and complaints

When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights. You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

decisions refusing access to all or part of a document or if we defer access
decisions imposing a charge
decisions refusing to amend records we hold about you, that you claim are incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them, can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Internal review

You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer. An application for internal review must be made within 30 days of receiving your notice of our decision. We will advise you of our new review decision within 30 days of receiving your internal review application.

Information Commissioner Review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified (if you are an affected third party)). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at www.oaic.gov.au- external site.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC's website at www.oaic.gov.au- external site. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

FOI Disclosure Log

The information described in the FOI Disclosure Log has been released under the FOI Act and is available for public access.

A link is provided if the information can be downloaded from this website or another website. Information that is not available on the website may be obtained by sending an email to foi@remtribunal.gov.au.

Information Publication Scheme

The Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) is an authority subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) and is required to comply with the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) requirements set down in that Act by making a broad range of information available, where possible, online.

The following information is provided in accordance with the Tribunal's IPS obligations:

Information we must publish

Agency Plan (s.8(2)(a) of the FOI Act)

The Agency Plan describes how the Tribunal implements and administers the IPS in respect of its own information holdings.

Who we are (s.8(2)(b) and 8(2)(d))

The Tribunal is an independent statutory authority established by s.4 of the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 (the RT Act). It consists of three part-time members appointed by the Governor-General.

Information about the Tribunal members can be found at www.remtribunal.gov.au.

The Tribunal is supported by a Secretariat staffed by employees of the Australian Public Service Commission. The Secretariat is led by the Tribunal’s Secretary, an SES Band 1 officer.

What we do (s.8(2)(c) and 8(2)(j))

The Tribunal's role is to determine, report on, review or provide advice about remuneration, including allowances and entitlements that are within its jurisdiction, for the following:

federal Parliamentarians, including Ministers and Parliamentary office holders;
judicial and non-judicial offices of federal courts and tribunals;
Secretaries of Departments;
full-time and part-time holders of various public offices;
Specified Statutory Offices; and
Principal Executive Offices.

Our reports and responses to Parliament (s.8(2)(e) and 8(2)(h))

The Tribunal is required, under s.12AA of the RT Act, to table annual reports on its operations in the Australian Parliament. Past reports (dating from 2005-06) can be found at the Annual Reports section of the website.

Routinely requested information and FOI Disclosure Log (ss.8(2)(g) and 11C)

The Tribunal is required to publish an FOI Disclosure Log on its website. The FOI Disclosure Log lists information which has been released in response to FOI access requests since 1 May 2011.

Consultation arrangements (s.8(2)(f))

The Tribunal does not deal with specific policy proposals requiring consultation with the general public.

The Tribunal does, however, receive and consider solicited and unsolicited submissions from individuals (including office holders and Ministers) and organisations concerning remuneration and related matters for public office holders.

Contact us (s.8(2)(i))

For information relating to the Tribunal's IPS or FOI administration please contact the Secretariat:

The Secretary
Remuneration Tribunal Secretariat
GPO Box 419
Canberra ACT 2601

Secretariat enquiry line: (02) 6202 3930
Email: enquiry@remtribunal.gov.au or, for FOI enquiries, FOI@remtribunal.gov.au

Other information

Our submissions

The Tribunal's submissions to the Committee for the Review of Parliamentary Entitlements can be found here and here.

The Tribunal's submission to the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Executive Remuneration can be found here.

Our publications

The Document library section of the Tribunal's website includes copies of the Tribunal's Determinations, statements, and reports. The Document Library can be filtered by office type, document type and date.