ACCC to launch Freedom of Information doc store

Australia's competition watchdog is set to launch a new website which will become a one-stop-shop for all documents made public under the Freedom of Information Act.

The new Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) website is slated to be up and running by May next year, tender documents released this week reveal.

'Freedom of Information' refers to the process by which citizens can apply to access what data a government holds on them.

Australia's Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was updated in May 2010 with adjustments designed to make it easier to access and obtain government documents.

The majority of changes to the FOI Act, including the establishment of the new Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, will commence on November 1, 2010.

However, a requirement for government agencies to publish information once access to it has been granted under Part III of the FOI Act does not come into effect until May 1, 2011.  

According to the tender documents published by the Government, the website will also be used to make ACCC operational information, such as internal policies, procedures and guidelines, publicly available.

The plumbing

The ACCC has opted to use a PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) website hosted within the ACCC's IT environment and the Drupal open source content management system as the underlying structure for the website.

Several high profile websites, including the Australian Prime Minister's site (www.pm.gov.au), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation websites, whitehouse.gov and data.gov.uk use the Drupal CMS system.

The ACCC has also stipulated the new website must include the capability for online lodgment of documents.

The closing date for tenders is August 4, 2010.