The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives any person the right to:
- access copies of documents (except exempt documents) held by us
- ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading; and
- seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record
You can ask to see any document that we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt or otherwise not disclosable under the FOI Act. Exempt documents may include those documents containing material obtained in confidence and or other matters set out in the FOI Act.
You should also check the information we have published proactively on the CEFC website; under our Information Publication Scheme; and through the CEFC FOI Disclosure Log to see if what you are seeking is already publicly available.
How to make a request
Your request must:
- be in writing
- state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
- provide information about the document(s) to assist us to process your request or, in the case of a request to amend or annotate personal records, details of the information that is claimed to be incomplete, incorrect, out of date, or misleading;
- provide an address to reply
Where to send your request
Please email your request to:
or post
FOI Officer
Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Suite 1702, 1 Bligh Street
Sydney NSW 2000
or phone 1300 00 2332
Fees and Charges
There is no application fee for an FOI access request.
There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you.
However, processing charges may apply to other requests.
The most common charges as stipulated in the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 as at 1 July 2016 are:
|
Activity item |
Charge |
|
Search and retrieval: time we spend searching for or retrieving a document |
$15.00 per hour |
|
Decision making: time we spend in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions |
First five hours: Nil Subsequent hours: $20 per hour |
|
Transcript: preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium |
$4.40 per page of transcript |
|
Photocopying |
$0.10 per page |
|
Inspection: supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at our premises |
$6.25 per half hour (or part thereof) |
|
Delivery: posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request |
Cost of postage or delivery |
The CEFC adheres to the spirit of the FOI Act in promoting public access to information at the lowest reasonable cost. When taking into account cost recovery subject to the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 the CEFC looks to waive charges in certain circumstances as outlined in the table below:
|
If the Applicant is |
Then the following charging regime applies |
|
A for profit entity or government entity; |
An estimate based on cost recovery subject to the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 |
|
A not for profit entity; or |
An estimate based on cost recovery, subject to the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982, which can be reduced at the discretion of the CEO in whole or in part |
|
An individual not in the above categories, including a parliamentarian or their office acting in an official capacity |
For the first application: |
If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.
You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.
What you can expect from us
We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will also give you an estimate of the charges that apply to your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days or apply to the Australian Information Commissioner for an appropriate extension if your request is complex or voluminous.
If you disagree with our decision
When we have made a decision about your FOI access request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.
You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:
- if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
- if we impose a charge
- if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading
A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.
Internal review
You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer from our organisation. We will advise you of the result of the internal review within 30 days of receiving your request.
Information Commissioner review
You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at www.oaic.gov.au.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI or IPS request, you can complain to the Commonwealth Ombudsman who may investigate our actions. If you wish to make an FOI or IPS complaint, please contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman at http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/.
Contact us
If you require more information or assistance, please contact the CEFC FOI Officer at:
foirequest@cefc.com.au
Information Publication Scheme
We are subject to the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) requirements under the FOI Act.
The following material is provided to satisfy these requirements.
Information Publication Scheme Plan
The Information Publication Scheme Plan shows what information we will publish, how and to whom information will be published and how we intend to meet the requirements of the IPS.
The links below provide access to the information published under the IPS.
Corporate Plan
Please view the CEFC Corporate Plan which is required under paragraph 35(1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 ("the PGPA Act").
Who we are
The CEFC's mission is to accelerate Australia's transformation towards a more competitive economy in a carbon constrained world, by acting as a catalyst to increase investment in emissions reduction. The statutory arrangements that apply to us including our investment mandate, details of the members of our Board and the process for appointments to the Board are set out at the relevant links. Our organisation chart shows our internal structure.
What we do
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation invests commercially to increase the flow of funds into the clean energy sector. We do this through an investment strategy focused on cleaner power solutions, including large and small-scale solar, wind and bioenergy; and a better built environment, with investments to drive more energy efficient property, vehicles, infrastructure and industry. We also invest with co-financiers to develop new sources of capital for the clean energy sector, including climate bonds, equity funds, aggregation facilities and other financial solutions. The CEFC operates under the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act 2012.
Our reports and responses to Parliament
Copies of our annual reports are provided to the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Finance.
Routinely requested information
This includes information which we routinely give access to in response to FOI access requests. As documents that are routinely released are identified these will be published on the FOI Disclosure Log.
Our priorities and finance
Our quarterly investment reports and annual reports set out our progress and priorities and include financial information as well as Board and Executive remuneration.
Other information
We also regularly publish additional detail on the investments we make. This takes the form of media statements, submissions, quarterly investment reports, case studies, and market reports.
Contact us
For assistance in accessing information held by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation please email the CEFC FOI Officer via foirequest@cefc.com.au
FOI Disclosure Log
We are required by section 11C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to publish a disclosure log on our website.
The information described in the FOI Disclosure Log has been released by us under the FOI Act and is available for public access within 10 working days after the day an applicant is given access to the document.
A link is provided if the information can be downloaded from this website or another website. Information that is not available on a website can be obtained by writing to our FOI Officer.
The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:
- personal information about any person if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'
- information about the business, commercial, financial or professional affairs of any person if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'
- other information covered by a determination made by the Australian Information Commissioner if publication of that information would be 'unreasonable'
- any information if it is not reasonably practicable to publish the information because of the extent of modifications that would need to be made to delete the information listed above
A charge may be imposed to reimburse us for the cost incurred in copying, reproducing and/or sending the information to you. There will be no charge for the time we spend in processing the FOI access request that led to this information being made available. You will be notified if any charge is payable and required to pay the charge before the information is provided.