78   Deferral of access

(1)  An agency that has decided to provide access to government information in response to an access application may defer providing that access if:

(a)  the information is contained in a record (or a draft of or extract from a record) that, by or under this Act or some other legislative instrument, is required to be published but is yet to be published, or

(b)  the information is contained in a record (or a draft of or extract from a record) that has been prepared for presentation to Parliament, or that has been designated by the responsible Minister for the agency as appropriate for presentation to Parliament, but is yet to be presented, or

(c)  the information is contained in a record (or a draft of or extract from a record) that has been prepared for submission to a particular person or body, or that has been designated by the responsible Minister for the agency as appropriate for submission to a particular person or body, but is yet to be submitted.

Note. A decision to defer access is reviewable under Part 5.

(2)  Access may be deferred only until the record has been so published, presented or submitted.

(3)  If access is to be deferred, the notice of decision of the access application given to the applicant must state that access is to be deferred and state the date on which access will be provided or (if that date is not known) describe the event following which access will be provided and the expected date of that event.

(4)  If access to information is deferred for more than 12 months, the applicant is entitled to make a further access application for the information. No application fee or processing charge is payable in respect of the further application and access pursuant to the further application cannot be deferred under this section.