The Freedom of Information Act 1991 (FOI Act) gives members of the public a legally enforceable right to access information held by South Australian government agencies, subject to certain exemptions.

A comprehensive overview of how freedom of information operates in South Australia is available from State Records.

View the freedom of information overview on the State Records website

The Department of Treasury and Finance FOI Information Statement

The following Information Statement provides a summary of what the Department of Treasury and Finance does, the types of documents we hold, and how a person can access the information they are seeking. The Freedom of Information Statement is published pursuant to Section 9 of the FOI Act, which requires government agencies to publish an up-to-date information statement every 12 months, in the agency’s annual report, on a website maintained by the agency, or both.

  • DTF’s role is to ensure accountability for public sector resources. Its functions affect members of the public in the following areas:

    • decisions regarding resource allocations for government programs and priorities
    • management of the Government’s financial assets and liabilities
    • monitoring and reporting on State finances and providing certainty of funding to the State
    • advising the Government on economic, social and regulatory issues
    • administering the Government’s revenue collection system (RevenueSA), insurance program and public sector superannuation schemes (Super SA).
  • The Department of Treasury and Finance periodically invites public consultation on significant policies and initiatives.

    Find out more about how DTF consults with the public

  • Documents held by the DTF fall broadly into the categories described below. Most are held in hard copy format, although some are stored electronically.

    There are other options for gaining access to government documents besides using the FOI Act. Many documents are already publicly available and it is not necessary to lodge an FOI application to see these.

    It may be useful to contact DTF to find out if you can access the information you want without making an FOI application.

    The following DTF documents are available online

    Documents available for inspection

    • If you are a current or past employee, you may access your employee file.

    Documents available to purchase:

    • List of Unclaimed Monies (currently not available)
  • Applications:

    • for access to information/documents
    • to amend the DTF’s official records about your personal affairs.

    must be made in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 1991 (FOI Act)

    To submit a freedom of information (FOI) application, visit Making a Freedom of Information Application | State Records of South Australia (archives.sa.gov.au) for access to the:

    • online ‘Make a freedom of information request’ form
    • hard copy ‘FOI Application, Request for Access to Documents’.

    If posting a hard copy form, please address it to:

    Freedom of Information Officer
    Department of Treasury and Finance
    GPO Box 1045
    ADELAIDE SA 5001

    If you wish to discuss your FOI application before submitting your request, please email FreedomofInformation2@sa.gov.au and an FOI officer will contact you.

    For further details about making an application, refer to Accessing Information held by SA Government | State Records of South Australia (archives.sa.gov.au).

    An FOI application for access to documents must be accompanied by the fee as stated in the current application form, unless the applicant qualifies for a fee waiver. Additional charges may be levied to process your request.

    While the FOI application process aims to provide access to the information requested, exemptions under the FOI Act may be applied to ensure DTF’s privacy and administrative responsibilities are met.

  • If, after inspecting documents, an applicant considers that personal information about them in the document/s is incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date or misleading, they may apply for the amendment of those personal records.

    There is no fee for making an application to amend your personal records.

    To make an application to amend your personal records download the Amendment Application Form published on the State Records of South Australia (archives.sa.gov.au) website. The form can be found under the ‘Application to amend personal information’ section.

  • We will provide you with a written acknowledgement of receipt of your FOI application.

    If we do not hold the documents, notification of transfer of the application to the relevant agency will be provided to you.

    We will contact you to discuss any issues if clarification is required.

    Following consideration of the documents and applying any relevant exemptions to any of the documents, we will provide you with a copy of the documents for release and an accompanying letter explaining any decisions to partially or fully exempt any documents.

    DTF has 30 calendar days in which to process an application. In some cases it may be necessary to extend the time limit for processing an application, in which case, DTF will notify the applicant.

  • When an application is received to amend DTF’s records, we will provide the applicant with a written acknowledgement of receipt of the application.

    We will contact the applicant to discuss the application if any clarification is required.

    Following consideration of the application, we will provide a letter to the applicant explaining any decisions to amend or refuse to amend the documents (determination).

    DTF has 30 calendar days in which to process the application. We may refuse to amend our records if we believe that those records are not incorrect or out-of-date, or if we believe that the information supplied in the application is largely incorrect or misleading.

    If DTF advises that it refuses to amend its records, the applicant may lodge a notice with DTF requiring to add a notation to those records, stating that the applicant claims that the records are incorrect or out-of-date and the reasons why the applicant made the claim.

  • Under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 1991 the business of government is made open and accountable to all. FOI gives you a legally enforceable right of access to documents held by the Government of South Australia.

    FOI allows you to:

    • access documents within our possession (subject to certain legal restrictions)
    • amend documents that relate to you which are incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date or misleading.