Agency Plan
MDBA’s Information Publication Scheme Agency Plan
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Introduction
Purpose
Objectives
Establishing and administering the Authority’s IPS contribution
o Parliamentary and FOI Coordination Unit
o Information Stewards Team
o Information Management Committee
Information required to be published under the IPS
o About the Murray-Darling Basin Authority
o What we do
o How we do it
o Corporate documents
o Working with others
o Freedom of Information
o Disclosure Log
o Agency Plan
Charges for access to documents under the IPS
Accessibility under the IPS
IPS compliance review
Annexure A
o Access charges for documents not available on the website
Annexure B
o Indicative timetable – WCAG 2.0 conformance
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Introduction
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (Authority) is an agency subject to the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) and is required to comply with the Information Publication Scheme (IPS)
requirements. This agency plan describes how the Authority proposes to do this, as required by s 8(1)
of the FOI Act.
The Authority is an independent statutory agency established by the Water Act 2007 (Cth) (Water
Act), belonging to the Agriculture portfolio. It comprises 6 members, including the Chair and the Chief
Executive, and is supported by an office of around 300 staff.
The Authority’s principal aim is to manage the Basin's water resources in the national interest.
The agency plan describes how the Authority proposes to implement and administer the IPS in respect
of its own information holdings, by addressing:
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establishing and administering the Authority’s IPS contribution
information required to be published
charges for access documents under the IPS
accessibility to information published
compliance review.
The Authority will continue to build and foster a culture within the agency, in which appropriate
proactive disclosure of its information holdings is embraced, leading to successful implementation and
administration of the IPS. This is in recognition that public sector information is a national resource
managed for public purposes.
Purpose
The purpose of this agency plan is to:
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assist the Authority in planning and developing its contribution to the IPS
show what information the agency proposes to publish (referred to as the IPS information holdings),
how and to whom the information will be published and how the Authority will otherwise comply with
the IPS requirements (s 8(1)).
Note: in this plan, information to be published by the Authority under the IPS is referred to as the IPS
information holdings, or as the IPS documents when referring to individual documents.
Objectives
The Authority’s objectives in relation to this agency plan are to outline appropriate mechanisms and
procedures to:
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manage the IPS information holdings
proactively identify and publish all information required to be published (s 8(2))
proactively identify and publish any optional information to be published (s 8(4))
review and ensure on a regular basis that information published under the IPS is accurate, up to date
and complete (s 8B)
ensure satisfactory conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 2) (WCAG
2.0)
ensure satisfactory conformance with other whole of government information policies, including the
Statement of Intellectual Property Principles for Australian Government Agencies (updated in October
2010)
adopt best practice initiatives in implementing and administering the Authority’s contribution to the
IPS.
Establishing and administering the Authority’s IPS contribution
The Authority has the goal of being the authoritative information service for the Murray–Darling
Basin. The Authority’s contribution to the IPS is one aspect of its actions to achieve this aim.
Key groups relevant to establishing and administering the Authority’s IPS contribution include the
Parliamentary and FOI Coordination Unit, the Information Stewards Team (IST) and Information
Management Committee (IMC). The role of each of these groups is set out below.
Parliamentary and FOI Coordination Unit
The Parliamentary and FOI Coordination Unit has administrative responsibility within the Authority for
matters associated with the FOI Act. Accordingly, the Unit adopted the role of coordinating the
establishment of the Authority’s contribution to the IPS entry and continues to administer the
structure of the IPS entry on the Authority’s website and ensures it is accurate, up to date and
complete.
Information Stewards Team
The primary task of the IST is to coordinate and drive organisation wide action to improve the
Authority’s information management. This includes:
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identifying information and data requirements of each program
advice to the IMC on new data management and IT initiatives
coordination of investment in new data and information
consideration of adoption and development of information standards.
The IST comprises 9 staff members representing the business areas of the Authority: Corporate and
Business Services; Policy and Planning; Environmental Management; and River Management. The IST
representatives provide contact points within each business area to coordinate input into the
Authority’s IPS. The IST reports to the IMC.
Information Management Committee (IMC)
The IMC oversees the Authority’s approach to the management of information. The Authority’s
ongoing compliance with the IPS will be coordinated by the Authority’s Information Champion — the
Chair of the IMC. The Chair of the IMC is designated by the Authority as the senior officer responsible
for leading the Authority’s compliance with the IPS as the MDBA IPS Leader.
Information required to be published under the IPS
The Authority publishes the documents required to be published under the IPS (s 8(2)) on the
Agency’s website at www.mdba.gov.au/about us/ips.
The Authority publishes these documents under the following headings:
About the Murray-Darling Basin Authority
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This includes an organisation chart, details of Authority members, statutory appointees, other key
people in the Authority and governance arrangements.
What we do
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This outlines the functions of the Authority including its main roles and responsibilities.
How we do it
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The Authority publishes information regarding the main programs which the Authority administers
including the implementation of the Basin Plan 2012 (Cth); Water Planning; Environmental Water;
Managing Rivers; Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting; and Research and Investigations.
The Authority publishes river data and information including updates on rain, inflows, recent and
planned operational activities, river flows, storage levels, releases and salinity with short-term
forecasts provided where available, for example, the river operations weekly report and live river
data.
Corporate documents
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The full text of the Authority’s annual reports from 2007-2008 onwards, which are tabled in
Parliament is provided.
Other corporate documents such as the latest Strategic Plans, budget statements, files list, fraud
control policy, Dispute Management Plan, and information relating to tenders, list of grants, contract
listings and legal services expenditure are included.
Working with others
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This includes information about how and to whom a comment may be submitted by members of the
public, where the Authority undertakes public consultation on a specific policy proposal.
Freedom of Information
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This includes the officer, address and an email address for a contact officer, who can be contacted
about access to the Authority’s information or documents under the FOI Act. The Authority has
established a generic email address for this purpose that will not change with staff movements.
Disclosure Log
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The Authority publishes a disclosure log under s 11C of the FOI Act – which requires agencies to
publish information contained in documents to which the agency has provided access under the FOI
Act.
The Authority will publish any documents to which the Authority routinely gives access in response to
FOI requests.
Agency Plan
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This agency plan will be published on the website.
Charges for access to documents under the IPS
The Authority may charge a person for accessing any IPS document which it is impracticable to
publish online:
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at the lowest reasonable cost
to reimburse specific reproduction costs or other specific incidental costs (s 8D(4)).
The Authority will publish on its website a reference to any IPS documents that are impracticable to
publish online. The website will state that a person seeking access to any of these documents may
contact the Publications Officer (whose contact details will be provided) to arrange access.
The list of documents will include indicative charges that may be imposed for making that information
available and an explanation for the charge. These charges will be consistent with charges in the
Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 (which generally apply to access requests under
Part III of the FOI Act). Annexure A lists the charges for access to documents not available on the
website.
Accessibility under the IPS
The Authority will ensure, to the extent possible, that all information published under the IPS (s 8(2))
conforms with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 2) (WCAG 2.0).
The Authority will ensure, to the extent possible, that information published on its website conforms
with WCAG 2.0 in accordance with the time frames in Annexure B.
The Authority’s website will state that where a document is not yet available in an accessible format, it
will be made available in an accessible format on request, by contacting the Publications Officer.
IPS compliance review
The Authority will review and revise this agency plan at least annually, which will coincide with the
Authority’s strategic planning process. The Authority will review the operation of its IPS from time to
time and at least every five years, in accordance with the any guidelines issued by the Information
Commissioner about IPS compliance review.
Annexure A
Access charges for documents not available on the website
Format
Charges
Photocopy
10 cents per page
Copy (other than photocopy)
$4.40 per page
Copy of the document in the form of a
An amount not exceeding the actual
computer tape or a computer disk
costs incurred by the Authority in
producing the copy
Copy of the document to be sent to the
An amount not exceeding the cost of
applicant by post or delivered to the applicant
postage or delivery
Annexure B
Indicative timetable – WCAG 2.0 conformance
The Authority will ensure, to the extent possible, that documents published in relation to the
IPS conform with WCAG 2.0 in accordance with the timetable set out below:
No.
Document category
WCAG 2.0 standard
Indicative WCAG 2.0
conformance date
1.
All documents
Single A conformant
December 2012
2.
All documents
Double A conformant
December 2014
The above timetable is based on the AGIMO’s Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy.