Ref: LEX-76742 
 
 
Oliver Smith 
 
 
Via email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx 
 
 
 
 
 
Dear Oliver Smith 
 
Your Freedom of Information request – consultation 
 
I refer to your request dated 28 March 2024 and received by the Department of Climate Change, 
Energy, the Environment and Water (department) on the same date for access under the 
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the following documents: 
 
‘Under the FOI Act, I seek all ministerial briefs and submissions provided to the office of 
the Minister from 1 June, 2023 to present in relation to the PORTLAND DECLARATION 
AREA AND SOUTHERN OCEAN DECLARATION AREA.’ 
 
You provided advice on 8 April 2024 that you were specifically referring to the Office of the 
Minister for Climate Change and Energy. 
 
Your request involves significant resources for the department 
 
Due to the amount of work involved for the department, under sections 24AA(1)(a)(i), 24 and 
24AA(2) of the FOI Act, the department intends to refuse your FOI request as a 'practical refusal 
reason' exists. Under the Act, the practical refusal reason is that processing your request 'would 
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources' of this agency.  
To process your request the department would have to do extensive searches to find and 
process the documents you asked for. Preliminary searches indicate that the department may 
hold more than 75 documents, totalling over 12300 pages. I estimate that it would take over 
1300 hours to process your request. This is a conservative estimate and does not include the 
actual processing time required for locating and collation of all documents.  
 
The high volume of hours estimated to process this request stems largely from the large number 
of submissions that would be captured, documents that are likely to require consultation and 
redaction. Initial estimates indicate that more than 150 third parties would need to consulted 
under either sections 26A, 27 and/or 27A of the FOI Act.  
 
If you decide not to make any revisions to your request, the department may refuse your FOI 
request as a ‘practical refusal reason’ exists. 
 
How to send us a ‘revised request’ 
 
Before a final decision is made on your request, you can submit a revised request. 
 
 
T +61 2 6274 1111 
John Gorton Building 
GPO Box 3090 
dcceew.gov.au 
F +61 2 9094 2221 
King Edward Terrace 
Canberra ACT 2601 
ABN 63 573 932 849 
Parkes ACT 2600 
 

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Within the next 14 days (consultation period) you must do one of the following in writing: 
 
•  withdraw the request; 
 
•  make a revised request; or 
 
•  tell us that you do not want to revise your request. 
 
If you do not contact us during the consultation period, your request will be taken as having 
been withdrawn.   
 
If you would like to make a revised request, you could consider one or more of the following: 
 
•  limiting your request to ministerial briefs only, excluding attachments; 
 
•  excluding submissions from third parties; and 
 
•  limiting the timeframe further. 
 
Contact officer 
 
During the consultation period, you are welcome to contact the department to ask for help in 
revising your request. The contact officer’s details are as follows: 
 
Fiona 
Senior FOI Officer 
xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx 
 
Further assistance 
 
If you have any questions, please email xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx. 
 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
Paul Murphy 
Branch Head 
Offshore Renewables Branch 
Net Zero Industries Division 
 
19 April 2024 
 
 
 
 
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