The Southern Downs Regional Council is committed to complying fully with the legislative obligations and functions under the Right to Information Act (2009) and the Information Privacy Act (2009).
The Right to Information Act (2009) and the Information Privacy Act (2009) aim to make information held by the Southern Downs Regional Council more available and more accessible to all sectors of the community while at the same time providing appropriate protection for individuals’ privacy
These pieces of legislation replace the former Freedom of Information Act (1992).
Further information is available by visiting www.rti.qld.gov.au .
Please follow the links at the bottom of this page to access information or contact Council for further assistance.
How do I access Information
There are a variety of ways to access information held by the Southern Downs Regional Council. These include:
Administrative access - Under guidelines provided by the Office of The Information Commissioner, “administrative access refers to the release of information by means other than a formal application under the RTI and IP Acts”. This effectively refers to all Council information that is provided on our web site, in rates mail outs, notices issued, information provided in our Publication Scheme, etc.
Publication scheme - Our publication scheme describes and categorises information routinely available. It has been developed to give the community greater access to information.
Disclosure log - The disclosure log is a database of information that has been released under previous Right To Information applications and is posted on our web page.
Contacting Customer Service team directly - Council’s Customer Service Team on 1300 My SDRC (1300 697 372)
RTI/IP Access/Amendment application - If the information you are seeking is not available under administrative access, then you may still be able to access the information by lodging a formal Right To Information or Information Privacy access application. Below is a link to the application form.
Right to Information or Information Privacy access application form (PDF 573.2KB)
If you decide to lodge a formal Right to Information or Information Privacy application, the basic process that will be followed will be as follows:
- After you have lodged and paid for (if applicable) your application, you will receive an acknowledgement letter to advise that Council has received your application;
- You will also receive a Charges Estimate - calculation of how much (if anything) the application may cost to process. If it is the opinion of the decision maker that it will take less than 5 hours to process, there will be no processing charge.
- The processing time for the application is 25 business days. Therefore if the application is received on Thursday the first day of the month, the allowed processing time is 25 business days from the Friday the second of the month.
- Should after you receive a decision notice, you are unhappy with the decision, there is an option for an internal or external review of the decision. the process for appeals will be set out in your decision notice.
- For further information on the process, or even to lodge a complaint regarding the availability of Council information, you can contact the principal Right To Information and Information Privacy decision maker, the Customer Service and Corporate Knowledge Co-ordinator on 1300 My SDRC (1300 697 372).
Publication Scheme
Other links