PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
8 February 2024
Our reference: LEX 78069
B
Only by email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear B,
Your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your request, received by Services Australia (the Agency) on 24 January 2024, and
revised on 5 February 2024, for access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI
Act) to the fol owing documents:
Reports, briefs, and letters between the CEO and the Senior Executive Staff from
2021-2024, regarding the workforce management system.
o Please advise if: Communication to include emails between the CEO’s positional
mailbox and the Senior Executive Staff divisional positional mailboxes with the
fol owing keywords:
“workforce” + “management” + “system”
“monitor” + “staff” + “breaks”
“implement”
Your request involves too much work for the Agency
Your Freedom of Information (FOI) request covers a wide range of documents. We are
asking you to revise your request to give us more specific details about the information you
are after because of the amount of work involved for the Agency.
If you decide not to make any revisions, I wil have to refuse your FOI request as a 'practical
refusal reason' exists.
For a more detailed explanation of what this means see Attachment A.
How to send us a 'revised request'
Before I make a final decision on your request, you can narrow the size of your original
request and submit a revised request.
Within the next 14 days you must do one of the fol owing, in writing:
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PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
withdraw the request
make a revised request, or
tel us you do not want to revise your request.
Your response wil be expected by 22 February 2024. If you do not contact us during the 14
day consultation period, your matter wil be taken as withdrawn by operation of the FOI Act.
See Attachment A for relevant sections of the FOI Act.
If you decide to make a revised request, you should be specific about the documents you
want. This could help the Agency find the documents in less time and use fewer resources to
process them.
We have 30 days to give you a decision about your request, however the time taken to
consult with you now is not included in this 30 day time period.
Contact officer
I am the contact officer for your request. During the consultation period you are welcome to
ask for my help in revising your request. You can contact me:
in writing to the address at the top of this letter, or
via email to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Note: When you contact us please quote the reference number FOI LEX 78069.
Further assistance
If you have any questions please email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth
FOI Officer
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Reviews Branch | Legal Services Division
Services Australia
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PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
Attachment A
What I took into account
On 5 February 2024, you revised your request for access under the FOI Act to the fol owing
documents:
Reports, briefs, and letters between the CEO and the Senior Executive Staff from
2021-2024, regarding the workforce management system.
o Please advise if: Communication to include emails between the CEO’s positional
mailbox and the Senior Executive Staff divisional positional mailboxes with the
fol owing keywords:
“workforce” + “management” + “system”
“monitor” + “staff” + “breaks”
“implement”
Because of the amount of work involved for the Agency, under sections 24AA(1)(a)(i), 24 and
24AA(2) of the FOI Act I intend to refuse your FOI request as a 'practical refusal reason'
exists. Under the FOI Act, the practical refusal reason is that processing your request 'would
substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources' of the Agency.
To process your request in its current terms, the Agency would have to do extensive
searches to find and process the documents you asked for. Preliminary searches relating to
the component of your request for emails have identified more than 950 emails between
your nominated sender and recipient that contain your nominated key words.
We consider the keywords provided in your request are broad and could relate to a wide
range of subject matter not necessarily related to the documents you are seeking access to.
Based on my experience with the type and volume of records you want, I estimate it would
take more than 83 hours in processing time. This includes looking at al the emails to see if
any of the pages might need redactions - that is, possibly deleting some content, for
example, where there is private information about another person.
Amount of time to process your request
I have calculated the number of hours it would take to process your request in ful .
Search for and retrieve documents
1 hour
Saving and converting the emails at an average of 2 minutes
31.5 hours
per email
Examine emails for decision making at an average of 3 minutes
47.5 hours
per email
Write statement of reasons for decision
3 hours
Total
83 hours
Seeking clarification
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PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
Noting that as it stands your request is too voluminous to process, we require further
information from you to enable us to process your request.
You may like to consider:
- Removing internal emails from your request, or
- Providing a revised request for emails, including a limited and specific
sender/recipient, a smal er time frame, and more targeted keywords that would not be
likely to capture a high volume of irrelevant correspondence.
Assistance with revising your request
As advised previously, the Agency does not implement a system for monitoring the breaks of
Agency employees.
We have further consulted with the relevant business areas in relation to your request. We
consider that the Agency's Rostering Policy may be of assistance to you, as it captures
information about rostering for scheduled staff, the taking of breaks, adherence and
performance management.
If you would like to revise the scope of your request and seek access to this document,
please respond indicating you wish to revise your request to 'The Agency's Rostering Policy'.
Alternatively, please respond with a revised request specifying the exact documents you are
seeking access to.
Additional Information
We also consider the Enterprise Agreement, which is publicly available, may be of
assistance to you. This provides information about employee entitlements including breaks.
This is available on our website here:
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/enterprise-agreements?context=1#a1
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act provides a practical refusal reason exists in relation to a
FOI request if the work involved in processing the request would substantial y and
unreasonably divert the resources of the Agency from its other operations.
Section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act sets out certain factors which the Agency must consider
when determining whether providing access in relation to a request would substantial y and
unreasonably divert the Agency's resources. The Agency must specifical y have regard to the
resources which would have to be used for:
identifying, locating or col ating the documents within Services Australia's filing
system
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 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.
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PO Box 7820, Canberra BC ACT 2610
Section 24AB(6) of the FOI provides the applicant must, before the end of the consultation
period, do one of the fol owing, by written notice to the Agency a or the Minister:
withdraw the request,
make a revised request, or
indicate that the applicant does not wish to revise the request.
Section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act provides the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the
end of the consultation period if:
the applicant does not consult the contact person during the consultation period in
accordance with the notice, or
the applicant does not do one of the things mentioned in subsection (6) before the end
of the consultation period.
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