Public Information

Decisions we take can affect members of the public in relation to their ownership and use of land. Acting under the Western Australian Land Authority Act 1992, we have the authority to:

• acquire, hold, manage and dispose of land
• plan, undertake, provide for, promote and coordinate the development of land
• subdivide, amalgamate, improve, develop, alter and extract minerals from land

DevelopmentWA endeavours to engage with all relevant stakeholders including Government, business and communities to deliver responsive and innovative projects across WA. If you would like to be involved in the public consultation phase of any DevelopmentWA project, please call our office, or follow the instructions provided on our website.

Information we provide ranges from:.

• project sales brochures
• project newsletters
• corporate newsletters
• annual reports
• media statements

Where possible, we make information available on an informal basis, at no cost. Many of these documents are available to be downloaded from our website.

Project sales information is available from our selling agents or through the project’s website as shown in all advertisements, brochures and newsletters.

We also maintain a number of hardcopy collections of records and electronic databases for use by staff, these include:

• project files (eg: land acquisition, land planning, land development, land disposal)
• administration files (eg: finance, strategic planning, information technology)
• human resource management files

Active files are held on site or with project managers, while non-current files are stored in an offsite commercial storage facility. Electronic databases contain largely project information. They are networked to staff and are maintained by our Information and Communications Technology Branch.

We aim to make information available promptly and at the least possible cost, and whenever possible, documents will be provided outside the Freedom of Information process.

If information is not routinely available, the Freedom of Information Act provides the right to apply for documents and to enable the public to ensure that personal information in documents is accurate, complete, up to date and not misleading.

Access to information under the Freedom of Information Act 1992 must:

• be in writing
• give enough information so that the documents requested can be identified
• give an Australian address to which notices can be sent
• be lodged at DevelopmentWA with any application fee payable

Applications can be made by using this form and enquiries should be addressed to:

A scale of fees and charges are set under the Freedom of Information Act Regulations. Apart from the application fee for non-personal information all charges are discretionary. The charges are as follows:

Advance deposit may be required for the estimated charges - 25%

Further advance deposit may be required to meet the charges for dealing with the application - 75%

For financially disadvantaged applicants or those issued with prescribed pensioner concession cards, the charge payable is reduced by 25%.

Access to documents can be granted by way of inspection, a copy of a document, a copy of an audio or video tape, a computer disk, a transcript of a recorded, shorthand or encoded document from which words can be reproduced.

As soon as possible, but in any case within 45 days, we will provide the applicant with a notice of decision in relation to the application. If the applicant disagrees with the decision the applicant can apply for an internal review of the application. Applications for an internal review should be made in writing within 30 days of receiving the notice of decision. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of the review within 15 days.

If the applicant is still unhappy with the decision they can apply to the Information Commissioner for an external review

Applications to have personal information held by DevelopmentWA amended should be made in writing to the Freedom of Information Coordinator (address provided above), should provide enough information to determine what changes are required, and should provide current contact details.