Agency Plan — September 2022
1. Introduction
The Takeovers Panel is an agency established under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) and is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act). The Panel is required to comply with the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) requirements and this agency plan (Plan) describes how the Panel proposes to do this, as required by s8(1) of the FOI Act.
This Plan discusses:
- what information the Panel publishes currently and what it proposes to publish in the future and the means by which this information will be published (on its website) and
- how the Panel otherwise proposes to comply with the requirements of the IPS.
The Panel is a small organisation which receives executive support from Treasury. The main contact for this Plan (including any feedback in relation to this Plan) and any FOI enquiries is the Panel's Chief Executive, Allan Bulman – contact details can be found on the contact us page.
The Panel receives assistance from Treasury FOI officers to respond to FOI enquiries. The Panel will act consistently with the principles in the Treasury IPS Agency Plan, unless they are clearly inapplicable to the Panel.
2. What the Panel currently publishes
The Panel currently publishes, among other things, the following:
- details of the Panel's structure, as required under s8(2)(b) of the FOI Act
- details of the agency's functions, including its decision-making powers and other powers affecting members of the public and its process in deciding applications, as required under s8(2)(c) of the FOI Act
- details of the appointment of the Panel President and Panel members, as required under s8(2)(d) of the FOI Act
- the Panel's annual reports, as required under s8(2)(e) of the FOI Act
- details of arrangements for a member of the public to comment on specific policy proposals for which the Panel is responsible, including how (and to whom) those comments may be made, as required under s8(2)(f) of the FOI Act
- information routinely provided to Parliament, as required under s8(2)(h) of the FOI Act
- details of other operational information, as required under s8(2)(j) of the FOI Act, including:
- a summary of key takeover provisions in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
- a summary of major guidance notes of the Panel and
- various explanatory memoranda and committee reports in relation to takeovers.
3. What the Panel proposes to publish
The Panel proposes to publish the following, among other things:
- documents which the Panel routinely gives access to in response to requests under Part III of the FOI Act2 , as required under s8(2)(g) of the FOI Act
- responses to public consultation, not marked confidential, from 30 June 2011 and
- responses to public consultation, not marked confidential, before 30 June 2011, when requested from a member of the public.
4. Other compliance issues
The Chief Executive of the Panel, in conjunction with other executive staff and Treasury FOI officers, will monitor compliance with the IPS and other FOI requirements. The Panel proposes to review compliance on a 12 monthly basis and will take into account any public feedback.
The Panel may charge a person for accessing IPS information other than through the website to reimburse agency costs. These charges will be consistent with the charges in the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 (Cth).
The Panel will publish any new IPS documents as soon as they are available for publication.
The Panel will seek to ensure that:
- the information provided under the IPS is easily discoverable, understandable, machine-readable, re-useable and transformable and
- ensure the format conforms where possible to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2 (Web 2.0) and provide alternative access arrangements.
The Panel's website is maintained by staff in Treasury.
- 1With the narrow exception of confidential reviews of ASIC decisions.
- 2Releases under FOI are published on the Department of Treasury's website. As at September 2022, two documents have been released under FOI requests - one in relation to the acquisition of Consolidated Minerals Ltd by Palmary and one in relation to Innate Immunotherapeutics.