How to lodge a complaint about the actions of NSW government agencies in regard to an Information Act

Under the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 NSW (GIIC Act) any person may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the action or inaction of a NSW government agency in exercising the agency’s functions under an Information Act.

A complaint about the actions of an agency is different to requesting a review. A complaint will generally be about the way in which an agency carried out its functions under the law, and not with regard to a particular refusal of request for information. If you want to request a review of a decision about an access application (also known as a formal application), please see Reviews by the Information Commissioner. 

You can use this form if your complaint concerns the conduct (action or inaction) of an agency in exercising its function under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act).

• Form: Complaint to the Information Commissioner

What conduct can I complain about?

You can complain about the way in which an agency carried out its functions under the GIPA Act. For example, a complaint could be about:

• the availability of an agency’s open access information
• an agency’s response to an informal request for information
• the content of an agency’s publication guide
• an agency’s policies and procedures about access to information
• the time taken by an agency to respond to a request for information
• how an agency makes information available for example audio visual information
• an agency or person acting in a way that may indicate that an offence has been committed under the GIPA Act.

In general you cannot make a complaint about an agency’s decision to:

• refuse to give you access to information
• refuse to deal with your application
• refuse to confirm or deny that information is held by the agency.

For more information about how to make a complaint about the actions of an agency, including links to our 'Complaint about an agency' form see our fact sheet Complaints about the actions of agencies.