New South Wales Consolidated Acts

STATE RECORDS ACT 1998 - SECT 54

54 Application to open records to public access

(1) If a State record is in the open access period and is not the subject of an access direction, any person can apply to the public office responsible for the record for an OPA direction for the record. An application can relate to a particular record or to series, groups or classes of records.

(2) The application is to be made in a form approved by Museums of History NSW. No fee is payable for the application.

(3) A public office is to deal with an application expeditiously. If an application has not been dealt with within 14 days after it was made, the public office is taken to have given the OPA direction applied for.

(4) An application is dealt with by giving an access direction for the records that are the subject of the application.

Note : The same kind of access direction need not be given for all the records concerned (that is, an OPA direction can be given for some of them and a CPA direction given for the others). A public office can, in the course of dealing with an application under this section, decide to give an access direction that covers other records as well (not just the records that are the subject of the application).

(5) A public office must notify its decision on an application under this section to the applicant in writing.