Section - 6A Relationship with other laws
Extract of legislation
| 6A | Relationship with other laws | ||
| (1) | This Act does not affect the operation of any other law (including, but not limited to, the Public Records Act 1973, the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and the Health Records Act 2001)–– | ||
| (a) | that requires information concerning documents of an agency or official documents of a Minister to be made available to the public; or | ||
| (b) | that enables a person to obtain access to a document of an agency or an official document of a Minister. | ||
| (2) | Nothing in this section limits or affects section 15 or 16. | ||
| Note | |||
| Section 10A of the Public Records Act 1973 provides that nothing in that Act prevents a person from giving access to records otherwise than in accordance with that Act where the person can properly do so or is required by law to do so. See also sections 6 and 14 of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and sections 7 and 16 of the Health Records Act 2001. | |||
Guidelines
Relationship of the Act with other laws
The Act is the primary mechanism for accessing and correcting documents held by the Victorian government and its agencies. However, other laws also provide the public with the right to access and correct documents.
Section 6A outlines that the Act does not affect the operation of other laws that provide access and correction rights (or that require an organisation to make information about the documents it holds publicly available). In other words, other avenues for access and correction continue to be available where applicable, notwithstanding the operation of the Act.
For example, Information Privacy Principle (IPP) 6 in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) enables individuals to access and correct personal information held by a Victorian public sector organisation,4 but only where the FOI Act does not apply.5
Similarly, Health Privacy Principle (HPP) 6 in the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) enables individuals to access and correct health information held by certain organisations,6 but only where the FOI Act does not apply.
More information
See section 39 for information on when to use the FOI Act, IPP 6, or HPP 6 to access and correct information.
- As defined in section 13 of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).
- For more information on the relationship between the FOI Act and Information Privacy Principle 6, see Chapter 6 of OVIC’s Guidelines to the Information Privacy Principles.
- As outlined in sections 10 and 11 of the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).
- As defined in section 13 of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).
- For more information on the relationship between the FOI Act and Information Privacy Principle 6, see Chapter 6 of OVIC’s Guidelines to the Information Privacy Principles.
- As outlined in sections 10 and 11 of the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).
