Your rights

As a client of AFMA, you have the legal right to:

  • have your privacy respected – the Privacy Act 1988 protects an individual’s personal information and requires that we use the information only for the purpose for which it was provided, protect the confidentiality of such information and do not disclose that information to any person or organisation unless we have your consent or are required by law to do so.
  • access information that we hold about you – the Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives you the right to have access to information that we hold about you subject to certain conditions.
  • bring any deficiencies in AFMA’s administration to the attention of the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
  • have certain fisheries management decisions reviewed – most of our fisheries management decisions have statutory rights of review under the Fisheries Management Act 1991 and AFMA will advise you of these rights when making a decision affecting you. Depending on the nature of the decision, you may also have the right to make an application to the Federal Court for judicial review under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977.

However, as AFMA is not able to provide legal advice in these matters, you should refer any decisions to your independent legal advisor/s as to the existence and nature of such rights.