NSW Right to Information Bill set to reshape how councils disclose planning and budget data to Sydney residents

The NSW government tabled amendments to the Government Information Public Access Act this week, introducing tighter disclosure timelines and expanded categories of documents that local councils must release to residents who request them. The bill, expected to pass parliament before the August recess, will compress council response times from 20 working days to 10 working days for routine requests, and forces disclosure of previously exempt internal advice on planning applications, budget forecasts and infrastructure contracts.

For Sydney residents, the shift cuts straight to the questions that shape daily life: Why did my development application take six months? What is council actually spending on roads in my suburb? How much is the Port of Sydney contributing to the local tax base? Those answers have historically been difficult to pry loose. The Local Government Association of NSW estimates councils process roughly 180,000 information requests annually across the state, but Sydney councils alone-including City of Sydney, inner West, Sutherland, and northern beaches councils-currently handle about 9,000 requests per year. Under the new rules, those requests must be answered twice as fast, or councils must publish a written explanation for any delay.

What the changes mean for planning transparency

The bill's most direct impact on Sydney will be in planning disputes. Currently, when a resident objects to a neighbour's development application, they cannot easily obtain the internal council assessments or technical advice that shaped the decision. The amended act removes the blanket exemption for "deliberative process" documents-meaning a homeowner in Woollahra or Strathfield can now request and receive the planner's written recommendation, the engineer's traffic report, or the heritage advisor's comments, even if the council ultimately rejected the objection. Councils will retain only narrow privacy exemptions for personal information.

Infrastructure projects like Metro West and WestConnex already operate under separate disclosure regimes, but the transparency changes will affect how much detail councils must publish about how they evaluated those projects, or what agreements they struck with Transport NSW. A spokesperson for the Inner West Council said the authority expects the bill will generate "significant additional work" in their access team, though they supported the transparency goal.

Compliance costs and service delays

Councils warn the accelerated timeline carries a price tag. The Local Government Association submitted a cost analysis to parliament estimating that Sydney councils will need to hire an additional 40 to 60 full-time equivalent staff across the metropolitan area to meet the new deadlines without cutting other services. Many councils already operate at capacity; Willoughby Council's current access team consists of two staff handling roughly 800 requests annually. Doubling the workload while halving response time will require either additional budget allocation or reallocation from other functions-a dilemma many outer-Sydney councils say they cannot afford without state funding.

The government's budget papers allocate $8.2 million in transition funding over two years to support local government compliance, but the Local Government Association calculates ongoing costs at $12.5 million per year across the state. Whether councils absorb the gap through rate increases or service delays remains unresolved ahead of the parliamentary vote.

The bill is scheduled for debate in the Legislative Assembly on 15 July, with passage expected by the 24 July sitting week. Any council resident who has struggled to obtain public information-whether on development decisions, council spending breakdowns, or infrastructure contracts-will feel the effects within 90 days of the act's commencement date. For those accustomed to waiting months for a simple document, the change is material. For councils already stretched thin, the bill presents a genuine operational challenge.