Information Act

The Northern Territory (NT) Information Act is about:

• Keeping people better informed about how the NT Government does its job for the community.
• Protecting your privacy when government needs to collect or deal with personal information about you.
• Improving how the NT Government records and manages personal information.

The Information Act does this in three ways:

1. Freedom of Information (FOI)
   You have a right to apply for access to government information held by NT public sector organisations, except personal information. You also have a right to apply to access and, if necessary correct, your own personal information.
2. Privacy Protection
   The Act sets out 10 Information Privacy Principles that state how public sector organisations must collect, manage, use and protect from disclosure your personal information. It also gives you the right to complain about interference with your privacy.
3. Records management
   The Act provides a legal framework for continuing improvements to the way that government activities are recorded, and the way that those records are managed. That means better management of government operations. It also assists FOI and privacy processes by providing systems and procedures that enable applications and complaints to be dealt with more quickly and more efficiently.

What information can you apply for?

You have a right to apply for access to any government information held by an NT public sector organisation, other than personal information and information which is exempt under the Act on public interest grounds. Government information means recorded information, in any form, that is required to be kept by a public sector organisation as evidence of the activities or operations of the organisation.

What rights do you have over your personal information?

The Act gives you rights to:

• apply for access to your personal information
• apply to have your personal information corrected, if it is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date
• complain that your personal information has been collected or handled contrary to the Information Privacy Principles.