Right to Information applications have increased by 88 per cent over a two-year period, a Justice Department report shows.
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The report, tabled in Parliament last week, shows there were 1957 RTI applications made in 2021-22, compared to 1037 RTI applications in 2019-20.
There were 672 applications where information was granted in full last financial year, compared to 281 in 2019-20.
Almost 600 applications took more than 20 working days to be determined in 2021-22. There were 49 internal reviews on RTI decisions and 46 external reviews, undertaken by the Tasmanian Ombudsman.
There were 1614 RTI applications to government departments, 152 to councils, 151 to other public authorities and 40 to a minister.
Of the applications made to government departments, 527 resulted in information being provided in full and 84 were refused.
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As for ministers, 16 applications had information provided in full.
Reasons for RTI application refusals included:
- the information requested was already publicly available;
- the information could not be produced using normal computer means and that producing it would unreasonably divert resources;
- the information requested was to be disclosed through other means, like routine disclosure;
- the information requested repeated a previous application;
- the application for information lacked definition or was vexatious.
There were four refusals for RTI applications made to government departments that were seen as vexatious or lacking definition in 2021-22.
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
