You may have heard about journalists using freedom of information (FOI) laws to access government documents.

What could I request? Personal medical records from your state's health department

Personal from your state's health department Politicians' entitlement claims from the Department of Finance

Politicians' from the Department of Finance Noise complaints made about you from your local council

made about you from your local council Emails about the cancellation of your Centrelink benefits from the federal Department of Human Services

There was the largely censored Department of Immigration report detailing the alleged rape of a detention centre employee on Manus Island, and the Government's refusal of an attempt to obtain information on the Centrelink debt recovery debacle.

Although FOI laws may seem like they require specialist knowledge, most people don't realise they're a powerful tool anyone can easily learn to use.

But what is it and how does it work?

What is FOI?

In short, freedom of information refers to a set of laws in each of the states and territories, and the Commonwealth that let ordinary citizens ask for any information held by government agencies — with some exceptions.

That information can come in many forms — internal reports, financial expenditure, medical records, emails or videos and photos, to name a few.

First introduced in the 1980s, the laws are designed to improve government transparency, the accountability of public servants and politicians, and to allow Australians a window into how decisions are made.

Australia is not the only country to have such laws, and while ours aren't perfect, they can be used to glean insight into the workings of government.

Every government agency in Australia, including the federal departments, police forces and local councils employs an FOI officer to handle requests.

How to lodge a request 1. Figure out what information you want. 2. Decide which government agency holds that information. Remember it could be more than one 3. Contact the agency's FOI officer to discuss what you want. They are your friend and can offer you helpful advice to shape your request 4. Ask the FOI officer if you even need to submit a request, or if the information you want is available publicly 5. Submit a request form and pay the fee (if there is one). Often you can ask to do this by email even if the option isn't advertised 6. Wait the statutory period (often 30 days) for your request to be returned to you

"Frankly I think FOI is a very underutilised tool," FOI expert Megan Carter says.

"I want it to achieve good stuff and then most people don't even know about it."

Ms Carter, who has worked as an FOI officer for several state and federal government agencies, says the number one mistake people make is not making their request to the right agency.

"This is one of the hardest threshold questions: 'Who do I ask?'," she says.

"When I was working at Centrelink, we had all these people who thought we were the [NSW Department of Family and Community Services].

"Then there's the Department of Health federally, but they only do policy and not personal matters — it's all the health entities and hospitals who have medical records."

"So although 'health' is in the federal title, they won't have anything you want about yourself."

How I tried to get the PM's WhatsApp messages

So could you use FOI laws to read the Prime Minister's WhatsApp messages?

In theory, yes. In practice, it's a little harder.

According to the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act (1982), you are entitled to request any official document of a minister, including communication like letters, written memos, emails, and post-it notes.

What you can't request Documents affecting national security or international relations

Documents affecting or Documents deemed to be commercial in confidence

Documents deemed to be Documents from Australia's spy agencies

Documents from Australia's Cabinet documents

documents Private information about individuals

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the body that oversees FOI requests, has even said that even the Prime Minister's WhatsApp messages are fair game.

We know government ministers use messaging apps to communicate, despite the PM's cyber security adviser saying WhatsApp is not approved for transmitting sensitive information.

On October 13 last year, I requested Malcolm Turnbull's WhatsApp messages about the proposed same-sex marriage plebiscite from the Prime Minister's Office under FOI laws.

My request was delayed until December 22, far beyond the statutory period (the 30 days in which agencies are legally required to respond), but I was finally told a search had been conducted and nothing had been found.

I then tried to request by FOI emails about my previous requests through the Prime Minister's office — a request that is now overdue.

Could others succeed where I failed?

While it is entirely possible that Mr Turnbull didn't send any WhatsApp messages about the plebiscite last year, Ms Carter says there may be another explanation.

"Text messages that relate to work are definitely going to be a record or a document just like any other, there's nothing about them that would make that different," she says.

"However, some of them may not contain information that needs to be retained and so may be deleted as ephemeral."

She says text messages have long been subject to FOI laws, but newer messaging apps like Wickr, which don't save records of conversations, can escape scrutiny.

"Some instant messaging services are communication services, not record-keeping services," Ms Carter says.

Unlike email, phone messages are not stored on a shared server, and so searching for FOI purposes would probably involve manually scrolling through a minister's phone.

So to answer whether you could ever get a hold of Malcolm Turnbull's text messages via FOI — or any minister's for that matter — it's unlikely.

This is in part because government ministers handle FOI requests differently to almost all other government agencies.

What if my request is denied? Ask for an internal review from another FOI officer

Ask for an from another FOI officer Failing that, make a complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner

Failing that, to the Office of the Information Commissioner Failing that, lodge an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

The Prime Minister's Office doesn't have an FOI officer, so under the act, the Prime Minister himself becomes the decision-maker for requests to his office.

But because Mr Turnbull is naturally quite busy, he delegates this responsibility to political staffers instead of public servants.

In a case that ended up in the Federal Court last year, Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus lodged an FOI request for Attorney-General George Brandis' ministerial diaries, a request refused by Mr Brandis' chief of staff, Paul O'Sullivan.

Mr Dreyfus appealed the refusal in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, where Justice Jayne Jagot decided that "no practical refusal reason" existed under the FOI act.

"The respondent has not demonstrated why it is necessary for his Chief of Staff to be the only person responsible for dealing with FOI requests in the office," Justice Jagot wrote.

"I do not accept this submission. The fact is that Mr O'Sullivan holds the only delegation. The final decision will be his or that of the Attorney-General personally."

According to Ms Carter, this type of behaviour from ministers' offices is nothing new.

"The history of FOI shows that some agencies and ministers stonewall you, and you have to seek review of the decision to make them accountable," she says.

"The good news is that the commissioners, tribunals and courts who oversee FOI are willing to hold ministers to account."

Unfortunately, there are some caveats

The cost of a request differs around the country depending on which government agency you are making your request to.

The FOI laws in each of the states, territories and the Commonwealth also have slightly different names.

Some jurisdictions might charge more if the request takes a long time, while others will waive the fee entirely if it's a request for your own information.

Government agencies may also refuse your request for information for a number of reasons — the request may be too vague, or you have asked for too much information.

Megan Carter says a lot of FOI requests are refused out of hand because they are poorly written.

"As a rule, I think asking for too much is a mistake because it'll never work out that way — a good request is specific," she says.

"My biggest advice to someone seeking a personal request is as many details as you can give about [a document's] date, time, place, topic will help you get a better outcome."