Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts(1) This section applies, in respect of an agency, to documents that are provided by the agency for the use of, or are used by, the agency or its officers in making decisions or recommendations for the purposes of an enactment or scheme administered by the agency, with respect to rights, privileges or benefits, or to obligations, penalties or other detriments, to which persons are or may be entitled or subject, being—
(a) manuals or other documents containing interpretations, rules, guidelines, practices or precedents including precedents in the nature of letters of advice providing information to bodies or persons outside the Territory administration; or
(b) documents containing particulars of such a scheme, not being particulars contained in an enactment as published apart from this Act; or
(c) documents containing statements of the manner, or intended manner, of administration or enforcement of such an enactment or scheme; or
(d) documents describing the procedures to be followed in investigating breaches or evasions or possible breaches or evasions of such an enactment or of the law relating to such a scheme;
but not including documents that are available to the public as published otherwise than by an agency or as published by another agency.
(2) The principal officer of an agency shall—
(a) cause copies of all documents to which this section applies in respect of the agency that are in use from time to time to be made available for inspection and for purchase by members of the public; and
(b) cause to be prepared, and as soon as practicable after preparation to be made available, for inspection and for purchase by members of the public, a statement (which may take the form of an index) specifying the documents copies of which are, at the time of preparation of the statement, available in accordance with paragraph (a) and the place or places where copies may be inspected and may be purchased; and
(c) cause to be prepared, if possible within 3 months, and in any case not later than 12 months, after the preparation of the last preceding statement prepared in accordance with paragraph (b) or this paragraph, and as soon as practicable after the preparation to be made available, for inspection and for purchase by members of the public, a statement bringing up-to-date the information contained in that last preceding statement.
(3) The principal officer is not required to comply fully with subsection (2) (a) within the period of 12 months after the agency comes into existence, but shall, within that period, comply with that paragraph as far as is practicable.
(4) This section does not require a document of the kind referred to in subsection (1) containing exempt matter to be made available in accordance with subsection (2), but, if such a document is not so made available, the principal officer of the agency shall, if practicable, cause to be prepared a corresponding document, altered only to the extent necessary to exclude the exempt matter, and cause the document so prepared to be dealt with in accordance with subsection (2).
(5) A report of a responsible Minister under section 79 (2) in respect of a year shall include a statement concerning compliance by each agency for which that Minister has responsibility with the requirements of this section during that year.
(6) Where a person makes a request to inspect or to purchase a document of an agency concerning a particular enactment or scheme, being a document of a kind to which this section applies, the principal officer of the agency shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the attention of that person is drawn to any document of the agency concerning that enactment or scheme that is relevant to the request and has become a document to which this section applies since the last occasion on which a statement in respect of documents of the agency was prepared and made available in accordance with subsection (2).