New FOI Application fee in Victoria

FEE UNIT AMENDMENT

Please note that from 1 July 2024 the application fee for a request for access to documents under s 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) will be $32.70.  

This is as a result of the amendments to Victorian fee units published in the Victorian Government Gazette by the Treasurer on 7 May 2024, with a new fee unit value being $16.33 from 1 July 2024.  Two fee units is $32.66,  but this is required to be rounded to the nearest 10 cents by the the Monetary Units Act 2004 .  Therefore, the new application fee will be $32.70

This means that from 1 July 2024 agencies will need to ensure they have amended:

• any published material showing application fees payable for requests to access;
• website information referring to application fees or charges;
• how access charges tied to “fee units” are calculated (for example search time which is calculated at 1.5 fee units per hour or part of an hour).

Please be particularly careful with access charges calculations tied to fee units.  In our experience, clients forget to first calculate the charge using the fee unit amount and then rounding the total.

FOI Solutions is happy to assist with any of these areas and has developed its 2024/5 Access Charges Calculator spreadsheet .  If you would like a copy of this spreadsheet, which will assist you work out those charges tied to fee units, please contact our office requesting a copy of the 2024/5 Access Charges Calculator.