Ms Angelica Pumperknickle
By email
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Our Reference: LEX 824
Dear Ms Pumperknickle
Freedom of Information request
1. I am writing about your request dated
16 February 2024 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 the 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 process’ 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:
“All correspondence (including emails, letters, meeting minutes, reports, or
any other written or recorded communication) between Rebecca Fawcett of
the Community and Public Sector Union (xxxxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx) and
any APSC employee regarding the following topics:
APS-wide bargaining
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Common conditions
Gender affirmation leave clauses
Disability leave clauses
Delegates' rights clauses
Pay increase negotiations
Any requests for discussions or meetings sent by the CPSU regarding the
above topics, directed at the chief negotiator or other APSC employees, that
occurred outside the publicly released bargaining meeting schedule.”
Timeframe: Communications sent between June 2022 and February 2023.
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.
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 documents from multiple sources will be found that may be captured by the
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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:
the Commission is a portfolio agency, with limited staffing resources available;
and
the Commission has limited capacity to obtain temporary resourcing in
considering the impact of processing your request.
Amount of time to process your request
13. Based on a preliminary assessment of the sample volume of documents and a review
of a sample of their contents, a breakdown of the time estimated for each stage in
processing a request is approximately:
Search and retrieval
Time required to undertake tasks
Executing searches, identifying relevant
1.6 hours
documents and collating documents
Decision making
Examining relevant documents (including second At least 18 hours
review of documents)
Redacting pages
At least 18 hours
Consult third parties
At least 3 hours
Writing statement of reasons
At least 2 hours
Compiling schedule of documents
At least 1.5 hours
Process Subtotal
At least 45 hours
Process Total (minus ‘first 5 hours free’)
At least 39 hours
Request consultation process
14. You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
15. Revising your request can mean narrowing its scope to make it more manageable or
explaining in more detail the documents you are seeking rather than the information
you wish to access. For example by excluding attachments, duplicates and documents
that would require consultation with other agencies the Commission may be able to
process the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to process
documents you are not interested in.
16. 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.
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17. The consultation period runs for
14 days and starts on the day after you receive this
notice.
18. 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.
19. 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.
Contacts
20. 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
SM
Authorised FOI decision maker, EL2
18 March 2024
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