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Revisions to the scope of your request
On 3 March 2024, you received a Notice of Intention to Refuse (Notice) under section 24AB(2) of the
FOI Act. The Notice set out:
•
the AFP’s intention to refuse the request on practical grounds;
•
the nature of the practical refusal reason that existed pursuant to section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the
FOI Act;
•
the consultation period and required actions;
•
the name and contact details of the officer you could consult with during the consultation
period; and
•
proposed ways in which you could revise your request to remove the practical refusal reason.
You responded to the Notice on the same day, with the fol owing:
While I acknowledge this procedural defect, I am willing to proceed with the consultation process
on the condition that the department seek an extension of time under section 15AC to allow for
internal review rights to be reinstated.
In the interest of reducing the volume of work required to process part two of my request, I
propose limiting its scope to only include correspondence with heads of departments. Please
confirm if this amended scope would assist in reducing the workload.
Additionally, I would like to address a point that has been raised during your consultation notice.
It has been stated that it would take a FOI officer approximately two minutes to copy and paste
the title of each document into a spreadsheet. I find this claim somewhat difficult to accept,
particularly given the fact that multiple results with identical email headers could be consolidated
into the list just once.
On 3 April 2024, I responded to you as follows:
You have suggested revising the scope of your request to 'correspondence with heads of
departments'. Can you please provide clarification your definition of department heads? Are you
meaning correspondence to the Commissioner, or Deputy Commissioner's as well? Once I have
received this clarification, I wil have to conduct searches again to determine the volume of
documents captured.
As advised in the Notice of Intention to Refuse, the AFP do not have a system to convert the audit
results into an appropriate section 17 document. We therefore, would be required to manually
create this document by entering the information into a spreadsheet to meet your specific
parameters. It is not as simple as cutting and pasting information into a spreadsheet.
To reinstate your review rights, you may wish to consider withdrawing your FOI request and
resubmit your request once the above clarification has been provided.
On 16 April 2024, a further Notice of Intention to Refuse was sent to you seeking clarification on your
revised scope, as a response was not received from our correspondence of 3 April 2024. You did not
respond to my 2 and 16 April 2024 communications.
DECISION
I apologise for the delay in finalising your request.
I have decided to refuse access to the document that you have requested access to on the following
basis:
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1. The document you are seeking access to, does not exist.
2. Section 17 of the Act relevantly provides:
a. where it appears from the request that the desire of the applicant is for information
that is not available in discrete form in written documents of the agency; and
b. the agency could produce a written document containing the information in
discrete form by:
i. the use of a computer or other equipment that is ordinarily available to the
agency for retrieving or col ating stored information; …; the agency shal
deal with the request as if it were a request for access to a written
document so produced and containing that information and, for that
purpose, this Act applies as if the agency had such a document in its
possession.
3. Having regard to the nature and scope of your request, and the nature of the AFP’s record
holdings, it is not possible to produce a written document containing the information you
seek in discrete form by the use of a computer or other equipment that is ordinarily
available to the AFP for retrieving or col ating stored information.
REVIEW RIGHTS
Application for internal review of decision
Section 54 of the Act gives you the right to apply for an internal review of my decision. An application
for an internal review of my decision must be made in writing within 30 days of receipt of this letter. No
particular form is required, but it is advisable to set out in the application the grounds on which you
consider that the decision should be reviewed. An application for review should be addressed as
follows:
Email:
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Post:
Freedom of Information Team
Australian Federal Police
GPO Box 401
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Review by the Australian Information Commissioner
Alternatively, under section 54L of the Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner
to review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in
writing within 60 days of the date of this letter, and be lodged in one of the fol owing ways:
Online:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-
rights/freedom-of-information-reviews/information-commissioner-review
Post:
Director of FOI Dispute Resolution
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5288
SYDNEY NSW 2001
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***YOU SHOULD READ THIS GENERAL ADVICE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE LEGISLATIVE
REQUIREMENTS IN THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982***
REVIEW AND COMPLAINT RIGHTS
If you are dissatisfied with a Freedom of Information decision made by the AFP, you can apply for review
by the Information Commissioner (IC).
For complaints about the AFP’s actions in processing your request, you do not need to seek review by
either the AFP or the IC in making your complaint.
REVIEW RIGHTS under Part VII of the FOI Act
Review by the Information Commissioner
Section 54L of the FOI Act gives you the right to apply directly to the IC for review of this decision. In making
your application you will need to provide an address for notices to be sent (this can be an email address)
and a copy of the AFP decision.
Section 54S of the FOI Act provides the timeframes for an IC review submission. For an
access refusal
decision covered by section 54L(2), the application must be made within 60 days. For an
access grant
decision covered by section 54M(2), the application must be made within 30 days.
Applications for IC review may be lodged by email (xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx), using the OAIC’s online application
form (available at www.oaic.gov.au) or addressed to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5128
Sydney NSW 2001
The IC encourages parties to an IC review to resolve their dispute informally, and to consider possible
compromises or alternative solutions to the dispute in this matter. The AFP would be pleased to assist you
in this regard.
Complaint
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, please let us know what we could have
done better. We may be able to rectify the problem. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can
make a complaint to the IC. A complaint may be lodged using the same methods identified above. It
would assist if you set out the action you consider should be investigated and your reasons or grounds.
More information about IC reviews and complaints is available on the OAIC’s website at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/.
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