Access to Information

Council holds a large amount of current and historic information about our city and its activities. We make this information available to the public in line with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act). In the past, this has also been called Freedom of Information.

You have a legal right to access most government information, and you can expect this access to be open and freely available.

The Information and Privacy Commission NSW (IPC) has a number of resources to assist you with accessing government information.

There are several ways you can find or ask for information held by Council:

1. Search our website

Start by checking Council's website to see if the information you're looking for is freely available.

Under section 18 of the GIPA Act, certain information is considered 'Open Access' information. This information must be made available free of charge on Council's website unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure, or it would be unreasonably costly for us to do so.

Open Access information includes:

We also keep several information registers and a wide range of general information on our website.

Please see the 'Information not available as open access' section of this page for details of information that is not available on Council's website.

2. Make an informal GIPA request

If the information you're looking for is not on Council's website, you can make an informal GIPA request.

There are two types of informal GIPA requests:

General Information
Development Application Information.

There’s no cost to make an informal application. However fees may apply for photocopied documents or archived records. Current costs are shown in our Fees and Charges.

Use the button below to make an informal GIPA request.

Please note: due to a large number of applications, there may be a delay in response times to requests.

Make an Informal GIPA Request

3. Make a formal GIPA request

If you can’t get the information you want through one of the methods above, you will need to make a formal application using the form below.

Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 - Formal Access Application PDF, 241.44 KB

Formal requests are often needed for:

large amounts of information
when we need to do an in-depth search to find what you want
information that includes someone else’s personal or business details
other sensitive information.

You will need to pay a compulsory $30 fee to make a formal application. You may also be charged additional processing fees in line with the GIPA Act.

Information not available as open access

Under section 6 of the GIPA Act, Council must keep a record of information not available as 'open access' information.

Please see below a list of open access information that is not on Council’s website.

Return of Interests of Councillors, designated persons and delegates (full version). Note that redacted copies of Returns of Interest can be found on our Designated Officers page.
Submissions received in relation to Development Applications
Leases and licences for use of public land classified as community land. A list of leases and licences is available on the Current Leases and Licences page.
Orders given under Part 2 of Chapter 7 of the LGA
Compulsory Acquisitions.

Copies of these documents may be made available through an Informal GIPA Request or where necessary, a Formal Access application.

More information

Not sure what type of application to make? Call us on (02) 4227 7111 and we can point you in the right direction.

You can also visit our Privacy page to learn about how personal information collected by Council is managed.