Minor updates to the FOI Guidelines in February 2026

The astute FOI eye may have noticed that the FOI Guidelines were recently updated and are now dated as of March 2026. We have summarised the changes in the table below for ease of reference and provided a short summary of the two substantive changes:

There have been minimal changes to the substantive wording of the guidelines with most changes having been made to wording for clarity and coherence, updated references to the AAT and a general change in language from ‘requests for information’ to ‘applications.’ The glossary located at the end of the guidelines has also been removed.

The most substantive changes were the addition of guidelines 1.3 and 10.77. Guideline 1.3 outlines that while agencies must have regard to the FOI Guidelines, they are not bound by them and should also have regard to ART and Federal Court decisions when performing functions or exercising powers under the FOI Act.

Guideline 10.77 confirms that if a practical refusal decision is no longer pressed, the Information Commission can proceed to a decision under s 55K, rather than the respondent making a new decision under s 55G. This practically has the effect of referring the FOI request back to the Agency for processing. We previously discussed the ways in which a practical refusal decisions have been recently dealt with by the Information Commissioner in our article here: Recent practical refusals before the Information Commissioner

The OAIC has also provided guidance in relation to 10.77 with the inclusion of additional footnotes, referring to ‘AZI’ and Department of the Treasury (Freedom of information) [2026] AICmr 1 and Daniel Dare and Department of Defence (Freedom of information) [2026] AICmr 4 in which the IC set aside practical refusal decisions on the basis that the respondents themselves no longer maintained that a practical refusal reason existed.

[1]   See for example, ‘AZI’ and Department of the Treasury (Freedom of information) [2026] AICmr 1 and Daniel Dare and Department of Defence (Freedom of information) [2026] AICmr 4.

[2]   See Fletcher and Prime Minister of Australia [2013] AICmr 11 [33]–[38].