Speakers
Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC)
The passage of the Information Commissioner Act 2024 (the IC Act) and Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act (the PRIS Act) was a significant development for the OIC, the public and the public sector. The PRIS Act provides a framework to protect the privacy of personal information handled by public entities and to authorise the responsible sharing of information held by public entities. The IC Act establishes the offices of the Information Commissioner, Information Access Deputy Commissioner and the Privacy Deputy Commissioner.
This presentation will provide information about the roles of the new Commissioners and the Office of the Information Commissioner as at 31 July 2025 and how these roles will develop as the different parts of the legislation commence. It will also consider changes to Freedom of Information Act 1992 flowing from the IC Act and the PRIS Act.
Alison is the Director Education, Engagement Policy and Business Services for the Office of the Information Commissioner. She has coordinated the FOI Advice and Awareness activities of the office for over 10 years. Those activities include:
Recently she has been involved in preparing the Office of the Information Commissioner with FOI Functions to transition to a new Office of the Information Commission that will support the functions of the new Information Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners.
Prior to her advice and awareness role she was a legal officer with the Office of the Information Commissioner and her responsibilities included dealing with external review applications made to the Information Commission about access decisions made by agencies under the FOI Act. Prior to her work with the OIC, she worked for a number of years at the Ombudsman WA.