Office of the Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care
VP
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear VP
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST FOI 4792
Estimate of Charges
1. I refer to your request dated 7 February 2024 under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the FOI Act) received by Office of the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Mark
Butler, for access to the following documents:
‘…all correspondence between Health Minister Mark Butler and Philip Morris International.
Additionally, I request access to all communication between Health Minister Mark Butler and
British American Tobacco specifically related to the Therapeutic Goods Legislation
Amendment (Vaping) Regulations 2023 and Customs Legislation Amendment (Vaping Goods)
Regulations 2023. Please provide any letters, emails, memos, meeting minutes, or other
documents pertaining to these communications…’
2. Please note that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is a part of the
Department of Health and Aged Care, is providing administrative support to the Minister’s
Office (MO) for the processing of your request.
3. Under the
Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations), a charge
can be imposed in respect of a request for access to documents under the FOI Act. The
charge is for the search and retrieval of documents, decision making and provision of access.
4. I am an authorised decision maker under section 23 of the FOI Act, and I have decided that
you are liable to pay a charge in respect of the processing of your request for access.
5. A search and retrieval of documents relevant to your request has been undertaken and a
preliminary estimate of charges has been calculated. It is set out in the table below.
Search and retrieval time (including
0.75 hours @ $15.00 per hour
$11.25
time spent locating relevant files and
collating relevant documents
contained on those files)
Decision making time (including
8.16 hours @ $20.00 per hour
$63.28
time spent examining the
L ess first 5 hours which are free
documents, considering exemptions,
undertaking consultation, writing
the decision and preparing any
documents for release)
TOTAL
$74.53
Deposit required
$20.00
6. Under the Regulations where a charge is imposed and exceeds $25.00 but is less than
$100.00, a deposit of $20.00 may be sought. Based on the preliminary estimate of charges
for your request which is $74.53, I have decided you are required to pay a deposit of $20.00.
Details of how to make a payment are outlined below.
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
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7. Under subsection 29(1) of the FOI Act, I am required to notify you that you have 30 calendar
days from receipt of this notice to do one of the following:
• pay the charge, being the deposit outlined above, and notify the FOI Team via the email
below; or
• notify the TGA that you wish to contend that:
-
the charge has been wrongly assessed, giving reasons; or
-
the charge should be reduced or not imposed (for instance, where payment of the
charge would cause you financial hardship or where you believe access to
documents is in the general public interest), with reasons; or
• notify the TGA that you withdraw your request.
8. Please note, should you seek a reduction or waiver of charges on the grounds of financial
hardship it would assist the decision maker considering your request if you provide suitable
evidence of financial hardship (for example, by providing evidence of receipt of a pension or
income support payment; or provide evidence of income, debts or assets). This is consistent
with the FOI Guideline
s www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-guidelines/part-4-
charges-for-providing-access. Evidence should be provided at the time of seeking waiver or
reduction.
9. If you fail to notify the TGA within 30 days about what you propose to do, the FOI Act
provides under subsection 29(2) that you are taken to have withdrawn your request.
Timeframes
10. The time limit for processing your request is suspended, in accordance with section 31 of
the FOI Act, from the date you receive this notice and resumes on the day you pay the charge
or deposit (including any reduced charge or deposit), or the day on which the MO makes a
decision not to impose a charge.
11. Once your FOI request has been processed, the MO will determine the actual charge you
must pay before the documents can be provided to you. The final charge for processing your
request may be different from the estimate quoted in this letter. If I decide to grant full
access to all the documents within the scope of your request, you must pay the actual
charges for the time and disbursements involved in processing your request ascertained in
accordance with the table set out above (which may be greater or less than the estimate).
However, if you are only granted partial access to the documents, you will only be required
to pay whichever amount is the lesser of the estimate quoted in this letter and the actual
charges.
12. Please note that the decision maker can make a decision to charge for search and retrieval
that the MO has already undertaken for the purposes of your request in its current form, but
it may be possible to reduce the decision making charges that might be incurred by the MO
in the future if you refine the scope of your request, for example, by limiting the date range
of documents sought or excluding a particular category of documents.
13. If you agree to pay the charge, you are accepting liability for settlement of the debt upon
completion of processing the FOI request. Once your FOI request has been processed, the
outstanding amount of the charge becomes a debt to the Commonwealth. The MO is obliged
to pursue recovery of the debt in accordance with the
Public Governance, Performance and
Accountability Act 2013.
Payment
14. The TGA can accept payment on behalf of the MO. Payments for FOI requests must be made
online via the TGA’
s Online Payment Portal (www.tga.gov.au/how-we-regulate/fees-and-
payments/payment-options/online-payment-portal).
15. To make an FOI payment, you will be required to enter specific information as outlined
below. From the Online Payment Portal site, click on the option titled ‘
Online payment
portal’ to display the payment portal page. From the payment portal page, enter the
following information:
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• ‘
Biller Code’, click on the drop-down arrow to select option ’
11 – Freedom of
Information (FOI)’.
• ‘
Client Identification Number’, enter ‘
CO-9001’.
• ‘
Reference Number’, enter your unique FOI identification number followed by your
first and last name (e.g. ‘
FOI-XXXX John Smith’).
• ‘
Email Address for Tax Receipt’, enter the email address you wish to receive a tax
receipt for your payment transaction. This email will contain a unique 11 digit payment
transaction number to quote if you have any queries. Please retain this email for your
records. A tax invoice will not be issued for this transaction.
• ‘
Amount (AUD)’, enter the amount of the payment being made.
• ‘
Select your payment option’, click on the relevant icon to proceed to the next screen.
Please include reference to FOI 4972 in your payment.
16. If you require assistance with making a payment, please contact the TGA Accounts team on
1800 020 653 (option 5) or by emai
l at xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx. Users who are deaf or
have a hearing or speech impairment can call through the National Relay Service: TTY or
computer with modem users: phone 1800 555 677 then ask for 1800 020 653. Speak and
listen (speech to speech relay) users: phone 1800 555 727 then ask for 1800 020 653.
17.
IMPORTANT: Once payment has been made, please notify the FOI Team via the following
email address
: xxxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx. Failure to notify the FOI Team of payment may result
in delays to the processing of your FOI request.
Third Party Consultation
18. In the event your request relates to documents that include information about a person or
their business or professional affairs or about the business, commercial or financial affairs
of an organisation or undertaking, pursuant to section 27 and 27A of the FOI Act, the MO
will be required to provide that person or organisation the opportunity to make
submissions if it appears that they may wish to argue any document is exempt from release.
19. The statutory time limit for processing an FOI request will be extended by 30 days under
subsection 15(6) of the FOI Act where a third party is to be consulted.
20. If you require clarification of any of the matters discussed in this letter, please contact the
FOI Team on (02) 6289 4630.
Yours sincerely
Nick Martin
Chief of Staff
22 February 2024
