Automated decision-making and public reporting under the Freedom of Information Act

On 21 January 2026, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released a report titled Automated decision-making and public reporting under the Freedom of Information Act (the Report), which explores the prevalence of appropriate disclosure of the use of automated decision-making (ADM) among government agencies under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act).

Under s 8(2) of the FOI Act, a government agency must publish information, as part of the compulsory Information Publication Scheme (IPS), relating to its decision-making powers and other powers affecting members of the public (s 8(2)(c)), and operational information (8(2)(j)). The Report clearly states that OAIC considers the use of ADM to be operational information with the potential to affect members of the public, such that it falls within the scope of s 8(2).

As part of the Report, OAIC identified 23 agencies with statutory authorisation to make use of ADM and reviewed their online resources to determine if information about the ADM processes in use were disclosed as part of the agencies’ IPS obligations. The results of this review were as follows:

• 100% (23) of agencies complied with the requirement to publish IPS information,
• 17% (4) of agencies authorised to use ADM disclosed that they use ADM in a decision-making process in their IPS information,
• 39% (9) of agencies (in addition to the 4 above) made reference to ADM in their IPS information but did not confirm that they used it,
• 43% (10) of agencies did not mention ADM in their IPS information,
• The agencies that disclosed in their IPS information that they used ADM were not clear about how they used it, and
• 0% (0) We did not find any agency that had any published guidelines or policies on ADM.

The Report concludes that the results of the review indicate both increased regulatory clarity around the requirements of the IPS, and further consideration by government agencies to release all information that falls within the scope of the IPS, is required to give effect to the legislative intention behind the establishment of the IPS and the FOI Act more broadly. Accordingly, OAIC provides four recommendations in the Report:

1. All agencies authorised under legislative statutes to use ADM should publish this information as part of the IPS. This should include the statute that grants them this power, and whether or not they utilise ADM to provide information and services to the public.
2. As part of their IPS, agencies should clearly state the types of ADM they use to make automated decisions, not just AI (i.e. from simple calculators to machine learning).
3. Agencies that use ADM should publish, as part of their IPS, both a list of decisions they use ADM for and relevant and easy to understand examples, so the public can better understand how it is being utilised to make decisions that affect them.
4. Agencies that use ADM should publish, as part of their IPS, any policies that clearly set out the principles for when and how they use ADM to make decisions and recommendations affecting members of the public.

Additionally, OAIC stated that it will review and update Part 13 (Information Publication Scheme) of the FOI guidelines to expressly include ADM as an example of ‘operational information’.

Key takeaways

In light of the Report, any government agency that is making use of ADM, or is aware of the existence of an ADM provision in its governing statute, is encouraged to review and update its current IPS practices and online resources. Agencies should generally aim to provide clarity around the use of ADM in its operational information, to achieve greater compliance with the objects of the FOI Act and the recommendations of the Report.

The full report is available here.