Public survey to focus on Council's handling of RTI requests

Queensland Times: AU: Saturday, January 06, 2018.

A REVIEW into Ipswich City Council's operations under the Right to Information and Information Privacy Acts is being undertaken by the Queensland Government Office of Information Commissioner (OIC).

The OIC conducts regular reviews of all local governments to seek feedback from residents on how well councils are processing RTI requests and the general availability of information.

Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli encouraged residents to provide feedback during the public consultation phase of the review.

"The survey asks for views and experiences when seeking information from council," he said.

"The recommendations of the independent Governance Review adopted by council last September are progressively being implemented and will ultimately provide more open and freely available data for the public to access online.

"This will reduce the need for RTI requests and provide a more streamlined approach to accessing information.

"This will be achieved in part by introducing improvements to council's website search and other online customer self-service options."

Cr Antoniolli said individual responses to the OIC survey would be confidential.

"The OIC will report its findings to the state government and will also provide recommendations and advice to council," he said.

The survey will close February 5.