Our Ref LEX 734

Mr Ben Fairless
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Mr Fairless
Your Freedom of Information request - charge
I refer to your request, received by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
(department) on 22 July 2023, for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (FOI Act) to the fol owing documents:

I request the below documents:
- Current Draft Legislation related to reform of the gig economy
- Policy Proposals put forward by the Department to the Minister, or put forward by
the Minister to the Department
- Diary or file notes related to any meetings held between the Department and/or the
Minister, and the stakeholders that represent both gig economy workers and the
industry.
Preliminary assessment of the charge
Under the FOI Act, I have decided that you are liable to pay a charge for the processing of your
request. My preliminary assessment of the charge is $337, calculated as follows:
Search and retrieval time: 6.5 hours at $15.00 per hour
$ 97
Decision-making time including consultation with relevant third parties, after
$ 240
deduction of 5 hours*: 12 hours at $20.00 per hour
TOTAL
$ 337
*The FOI Act provides that the first five hours of decision-making time are free of charge and this is reflected in
the calculation.
I am advised that the department has in its possession approximately nine documents with
approximately 172 pages relevant to your request.

Required action
If you would like the department to continue processing your request, you must notify the
department in writing within 30 days of receiving this notice that you:
•  agree to pay the charge;
•  wish to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed, should be reduced or not
imposed or both; or
•  withdraw your request.

If you do not respond within 30 days, your request wil  be taken to have been withdrawn by
the operation of the FOI Act.

Option - pay the charge
As the charge exceeds $25, you are required to pay a deposit of $84.25 within 30 days of
receiving this notice. You may elect to pay the charge in full at this point.
Payment can be made by credit card by completing the attached credit card authorisation and
sending a scanned copy to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
If you are unable to pay by credit card, please contact us on the above email.
Please note that the charge is a fee for processing your request, not a payment for access to
documents. Payment of the charge does not guarantee you access to any or al  of the
documents you have requested. Access to documents wil  be considered by the decision
maker in accordance with the FOI Act.
Option - seek reduction or non-imposition of the charge
If you want to ask the department to reduce or not to impose the charge, you should tel  us
why and give us evidence to support your reasons. You may wish to tell us:
•  whether paying the charge would cause you financial hardship and/or

•  whether access to the documents is in the general public interest or in the interest of
a substantial section of the public.
We must take these matters into account in deciding whether or not to reduce or not impose
the charge.
Time limits for processing your request
Under the FOI Act, the time limit for processing your request is suspended from today until
the day fol owing payment of the charge (in full or the required deposit) or, if applicable, the
day following a decision not to impose the charge.
To assist you, I have set out the relevant sections of the FOI Act at Attachment A.

Further assistance
As an alternative, you may wish to consider revising the scope of your request. If you would
like to discuss this, please email xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely

Shira
Authorised decision maker
Information Law Team
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
16 August 2023

Attachment A
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Charge
Section 29(1) of the FOI Act provides that, where the department decides that an applicant is
liable to pay a charge in respect of a request for access to a document, or the provision of
access to a document, the department must give the applicant written notice. The notice must
state, among other things, that the applicant must within 30 days after the notice was given
tell the department in writing that the applicant:
•  agrees to pay the charge
•  wishes to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed or should be reduced
or not imposed or both or
•  wishes to withdraw the request.
Under section 29(2) of the FOI Act, if the applicant does not do one of these things within 30
days, the request wil  be taken to have been withdrawn.

Attachment B
Credit Card Authorisation
Use this form to pay a Freedom of Information charge by credit card

Applicant's details
Name

Phone number

Credit card details
Credit card type

Card holder's name

Credit card number

Expiry date

CCV number

Amount

Signature

Date

Privacy statement
Your personal information is col ected by the Department Employment and Workplace Relations for
the purposes of processing the payment of a charge imposed under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 and related purposes. If you do not provide some or all of the information requested, the
department may be unable to process your credit card payment. Your personal information may be
disclosed to other parties where you have agreed, or where it is otherwise permitted by law. The
department's Privacy Policy, including information about how to make a complaint and access to and
correction of your personal information, can be found at https://www.dewr.gov.au/privacy.

Document Outline