Our reference: FOI 22/23-1310
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
ndis.gov.au
23 June 2023
J.Finch
Right to Know
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear J.Finch
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 3 March 2023, in which you requested access under
the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National Disability
Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Before addressing your request directly, and to assist the consultation, I would like to bring
to your attention the publicly available information that might address your request. Please
find attached 0274 Review of Fraud Intelligence and 0351 Fraud and Compliance Document
S17. These documents were released under a previous request and provided fraud and
compliance statistics.
You might also find useful information contained at these links:
• Annual reports
- Annual Report | NDIS
• Quarterly reports
- Quarterly Reports | NDIS
Practical refusal
I am writing to advise that your request is unclear, doesn’t meet requirements, and in its
current form the work involved in processing your request could substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations due to its broad
scope. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act. On this basis, I intend
to refuse your request.
However, before I make a final decision, I am writing to provide you with an opportunity to
revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under section
24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out
below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
I have conducted a preliminary search for documents which are likely to be relevant to your
request. This search has revealed that the NDIA is in possession of thousands of documents
matching the scope of your request, not including any attachments which may be contained
within those documents.
On my reasonable estimate, I consider that there are thousands of pages worth of material
that falls within the scope of your request as currently worded.
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The documents that are assessed as being within scope of the request wil then need to be
reviewed for any sensitivities and possible exemption under the FOI Act and scheduled, we
wil need to consider any consultations and carry these out if required, a decision wil need to
be made on each document, and a decision letter prepared. This wil significantly increase
the hours that it wil take an FOI officer to process your request.
As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would
substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, the
NDIA wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive
resources to process documents you are not interested in.
Additionally, to reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider the removal of
all personal information regarding your request and instead request statistics on the retrieval
and investigation of fraud and misappropriation of funding.
You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
following:
a. withdraw your request
b. make a revised request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.
You can contact me by email
at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:
Freedom of Information Section
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 6 July 2023, your FOI request wil be
taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and wil not be dealt with any
further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
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Cooper
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
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