Marius
By Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Our Reference: LEX 679
Dear Marius,
Freedom of Information request
1. I am writing about your request dated
16 October 2023 for access to documents under
the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) held by the Australian Public Service
Commission (Commission).
2. I am an authorised officer under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
Request Consultation Process
3. I am writing to advise that the work involved in processing your request in its current
form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of this agency from
its other operations due to its size and broad scope. This is called a practical refusal
reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.
4. On this basis, I intend to refuse access to the documents you requested. However,
before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to revise your
request. This is called a ‘request consultation processes’ as set out under section 24AB
of the FOI Act.
5. You have
14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
6. You requested access to documents in the following terms:
I am making this request for access to documents that may be in the control
of the Office of the APSC. If the documents are not in the control of the APSC,
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do not transfer this request to the agency that officials in the APSC believe
has the documents. If the requested documents are not in the control of the
APSC, please simply refuse access to the documents under section 24A of the
FOI Act.
As to my right to elect whether I would like the Office of the Commonwealth
Ombudsman to deal with this request and not transfer it to another agency, I
refer you to the Federal Court of Australia’s judgment in Bienstein v
Attorney-General [2007] FCA 1174, [38]. The law on the matter is settled
and clear.
I request access to the role evaluation record, prepared between 1 January
2017 and 31 December 2020, that shows that the SES Band 1 classified
National Judicial Registrar & District Registrar role in the Queensland
District Registry of the Federal Court was, in the light of the work value of
the group of duties described in the work level standards and a proper job
analysis, lawfully reclassified and allocated an Executive Level 2
classification for the purposes of rule 9 of the Public Service Classification
Rules 2000 (Cth).
7. Under subsection 24AA(2) of the FOI Act an agency or minister must have regard to
the resources that would have to be used for:
identifying, locating or collating the documents within the filing system of the
agency or the office of the Minister;
deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to which the
request relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of such a document (including
resources that would have to be used for examining the document or consulting
with any person or body in relation to the request);
making a copy or an edited copy, of the document; and
notifying any interim or final decision on the request.
8. Further to the above, the Commission may have regard to other matters in deciding if
a practical refusal reason exists, relevantly:
the staffing resources available to an agency;
the impact that processing a request may have on other work in an agency; and
whether an applicant cooperates in framing a request to reduce the processing
workload.
9. I have taken into account all of the above matters in forming my preliminary decision
to refuse your request. I have not taken into account:
any reasons that you have given for requesting access; or
the Commission’s belief as to what your reasons are for requesting access; or
any maximum amount, specified in the regulations, payable as a charge for
processing a request of that kind.
10. My reasons are set out below.
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Reasons
11. Firstly, I am of the preliminary view that processing your request would be a
substantial diversion of the Commission’s resources because:
collecting and reviewing the volume of material involved would be significant;
identifying, locating and/ or collating documents would particularly be onerous
as it is estimated that documents from multiple sources will be found that may
be captured by the form the request takes; and
the contents of the documents will require diligent examination and likely
involve significant redactions.
12. Secondly, I am also of the preliminary view that processing your request would be an
unreasonable diversion of the Commission’s resources because:
you have stated in your request that you do not wish for the request to be
transferred to the Federal Court of Australia. Given the nature of your request,
relating to recruitment in the Federal Court, this is the agency most likely to hold
the records you are seeking in your request, not the Commission or the Office of
the Commonwealth Ombudsman;
the Commission is a portfolio agency, with limited staffing resources available;
the Commission does not have, nor has ever previously required, any permanent
dedicated FOI staffing resources as it has historically received a low number of
FOI requests that are capable of being managed within the existing resources;
the Commission has limited capacity to obtain temporary resourcing in
considering the impact of processing your request; and
the Commission is currently working on a number of priority matters related to
the Government’s public service reform agenda that was recently announced by
the Minister for the Public Service the Hon Senator Katy Gallagher. Processing
your request would unreasonably divert resources that would otherwise be
dedicated to performing the essential operations of the agency.
13. Finally I am of the preliminary view that processing your request would be an
unreasonable diversion of Commission resources because since April 2022, the
Commission has processed multiple requests or request reviews for the same or similar
material to that you are seeking.
14. Your request captures materials related to a large number of these requests, including
documents created as part of processing them.
15. We anticipate your request as framed will involve a substantial amount of time for the
Commission to go through the large volume of the same or similar documents in those
previous requests. This is reflected in the estimated processing times.
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Amount of time to process your request
16. Based on a preliminary assessment of the volume of documents and a review of a
sample of their contents, a breakdown of the time estimated for each stage in
processing the request is approximately:
Search and retrieval
Time required to undertake tasks
Executing searches, examining relevant
up to 5 hours
documents and collating documents
Decision making
Identify and examine relevant documents
up to 24 hours
Redacting pages
up to 27 hours
Consult third parties
up to 9 hours
Writing statement of reasons
up to 3 hours
Compiling schedule of documents
up to 10 hours
Process Subtotal
up to 78 hours
Process Total (minus ‘first 5 hours free’)
up to 73 hours
Request consultation process
17. You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
18. Revising your request can mean narrowing its scope to make it more manageable or
explaining in more detail the documents rather than the information you wish to
access. For example, by providing more specific information about exactly what
documents you are interested in, the Commission will be able to pinpoint the
documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to process documents
you are not interested in.
19. Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing:
withdraw your request;
make a revised request; or
tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
20. The consultation period runs for
14 days and starts on the day after you receive this
notice.
21. During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from the Commission to revise
your request. If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical
refusal grounds outlined above, we will recommence processing it. Please note that
under subsection 24AB(8) of the FOI Act the time taken to consult you regarding the
scope of your request is disregarded for the purposes of the 30 day time limit for
processing your request.
22. If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period or
you do not consult the Commission during this period, your request will be taken to
have been withdrawn.
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Contacts
23. If you require clarification on matters in this letter please contact the Commission’s
FOI Officer by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Melanie McIntyre
Authorised FOI decision maker
11 November 2023
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