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Freedom of Information (FOI) request
Notice of Decision
Reference: FOI/2024/386
Trav S
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Trav S
I refer to your request to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), under
the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 22 November 2024.
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request for access under the
FOI Act.
Scope of request
You set out your request in the fol owing terms:
Please accept my request for information in accordance with the FOI Act. I ask you to refer to
documents released to FOI/2024/316, and in particular the two documents prepared in 2014.
On 22 June 2014, a Mr Rush invoked powers under delegation to recommend the Governor-
General approve the award of the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal to persons listed in
Schedule 6/2014. The public official assured the Honours and Awards Secretariat that relevant
organisations had verified the applicants service.
1. Please provide the relevant organisation's documents that were relied upon to verify the
service of the persons recommended for the HOSM with the Australian contingent to the GE
water humanitarian operation;
2. Please release the 22 June 2014 letter, the accompanying Schedule, and the material in Page
59 with all section 22 redactions removed. All of the information in the requested documents is
relevant to this request and I ask you not to apply section 22 to withhold material;
Postal Address: PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849 Fax: +61 2 6271 5776 www.pmc.gov.au ABN: 18 108 001 191
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3. Please ensure the name and position of the public official who signed to certify that eligibility
had been determined in accordance with the HOSM Regulations 2011 is disclosed. Their details
are found in the Schedule’s lower right corner.
4. Please provide the number of persons listed in Schedule 6/2014 for the Australian contingent
to GE water humanitarian operation. Regarding this number, please produce a written
document containing the information in accordance with section 17(1) of the Act.
Request decided out of time
A decision on your request was due 22 November 2024. Unfortunately the Department was unable to
complete the processing of your request by the due date. In these circumstances the Department
fol ows the Guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act
(the Guidelines) which states:
Where an access refusal decision is deemed to have been made before a substantive
decision is made, the agency or minister continues to have an obligation to provide a
statement of reasons on the FOI request.1
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Material taken into account
In reaching my decision I referred to the fol owing:
• the terms of your request
• the FOI Act
• the Guidelines issued by the Information Commission
er2 (the Guidelines)
Documents in scope of request
The Department has identified four documents that fal within the scope of your request. These
documents are set out in the Schedule of Documents at Attachment A.
With regard to Part 3 we can advise the document does not contain the name and position of the
official you requested, only their signature. As outlined in the letter dated 22 June 2014, Mr Peter Rush
Paragraph 3.161 of the Guidelines
2 s 93A of the FOI Act
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was the authorised delegate for the recommendation of persons for the award of the Humanitarian
Overseas Medal (HOSM).
Regarding Part 4, there is one person listed in Schedule 06/2014 for the Australian contingent to GE
water humanitarian operations.
Decision
I have decided to refuse access to two documents in full (Document 1 and 2); and grant access in part
to two documents (Document 3 and 4), with exempt material deleted, on the basis the documents
contain information exempt under:
• Section 47F (Personal privacy)
• Section 47E (Certain operations of an agency)
Reason for decision
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that certain information is exempt or irrelevant is set out
below.
1.
Section 47F – Public interest conditional exemption - Personal privacy
Section 47F(1) of the FOI Act provides:
A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would involve the
unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person. .
For the purposes of the FOI Act the term ‘personal information’ has the same meaning as it has in the
Privacy Act 1988.
Section 47F(2) of the FOI Act provides that in determining whether the disclosure of personal
information would be unreasonable, an agency must have regard to the fol owing matters:
•
the extent to which the information is well known;
•
whether the person to whom the information relates is known to be (or to have been) associated
with the matters dealt with in the document;
•
the availability of the information from publicly accessible sources; and
•
any other matters that the agency considers relevant.
The Guidelines discuss a need to balance the public interest in disclosure of government-held
information and the private interest in the privacy of individuals
3. Further the Guidelines set out key
factors for determining whether disclosure is unreasonable, this includes:
•
the author of the document is identifiable
3 Paragraph 6.133 of the Guidelines (footnotes omitted)
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•
the documents contain third party personal information
•
release of the documents would cause stress on the third party
•
no public purpose would be achieved through release4.
Documents 1 to 4 contain the names of individuals, the signature of a former senior staff member and
correspondence of a personal nature. Reasons disclosure would be unreasonable include:
• the personal information is not well known or in the public domain
• the individuals are not known to be associated with the matters discussed within the
documents
• nothing within the FOI Act limits what an applicant may do with the released documents and
the requirement of publication wil result in these documents becoming accessible to the
‘world at large’.
Further it is reasonable to assume the individuals would not expect their information to be released,
given the confidential nature in which their information was collected by the Department.
Having considered the FOI Act and the relevant paragraphs of the Guidelines, I am satisfied the
material is personal information and falls within the scope of section 47F of the FOI Act and disclosure
of this information would be unreasonable in this instance.
I am satisfied the personal information is exempt from release under section 47F(1) of the FOI Act.
2.
Section 47E – Public interest conditional exemption - Certain operations of agencies
Section 47E(d) provides that
A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would, or could reasonably be
expected to…
a) prejudice the effectiveness of procedures or methods for the conduct of tests,
examinations or audits by an agency
b) prejudice the attainment of the objects of particular tests, examinations or audits
conducted or to be conducted by an agency
c) have a substantial adverse effect on the management or assessment of personnel by the
Commonwealth or an agency or
d) have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of
an agency.
Document 3 contains an internal phone number of the Department that is not publicly available.
4 Paragraph 6.137 of the Guidelines (footnotes omitted)
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The Guidelines explain that a decision maker is required to assess whether ‘the predicted effect needs
to be reasonably expected to occur.’
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The release of the operational phone number would reasonably be expected to result in non-official
communications or public inquiries via this channel, effectively bypassing established channels for
members of the public to contact and make enquiries to the Department.
These centralised contact measures have been established to ensure that that individual units within
the Department are able to efficiently undertake their day to day operations.
Disclosure would reasonably be expected to adversely affect the Department’s ability to respond
effectively to urgent official communications that form part of its day to day operations.
I am satisfied that a diversion of the Department’s resources to manage non-official communications
could reasonably be expected to have an adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of its
operational responsibilities, and that the parts of the document containing this material are
conditional y exempt in part under subsection 47E(d) of the FOI Act.
3.
Public interest
The FOI Act provides that a conditional y exempt document must nevertheless be disclosed unless its
disclosure would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest
6. In determining whether its disclosure
would be contrary to the public interest, the FOI Act requires a decision-maker to balance the public
interest factors.
As I have decided that parts of the documents are conditional y exempt, I am now required to
consider the public interest factors, in doing so I have not considered the irrelevant factors as set out
in section 11B(4) of the FOI Act, this includes:
a) access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth
Government, or cause a loss in confidence in the Commonwealth Government
b) access to the document could result in any person misinterpreting or misunderstanding
the document
c) the author of the documents was (or is) of high seniority in the agency to which the
request for access to the document was made
d) access to the document could result in confusion or unnecessary debate
In applying the public interest, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act
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access as listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act. Having regard to the material before me and the
circumstances of the documents found to be conditional y exempt I am satisfied of the fol owing:
5 6.101 of the Guidelines
6 section 11A(5)) of the FOI Act
7 section 3 of the FOI Act
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• access would promote the objects of the FOI Act
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I have considered the other factors favouring access as set out in the FOI Act and find them to be
neutral in the circumstances, this is due to the passage of time and the requested documents would
not appear to be of a kind that would be of public importance, and would not appear to contribute to
broader community debate on government programs. The information does not offer insights into
government expenditure and your information is not contained within these documents.
The FOI Act does not set out any public interest factors against disclosure and require that agencies
are to have regard to the Guidelines to work out if disclosure would, on balance, be contrary to the
public interest
9. The Guidelines contain a non-exhaustive list of factors that, depending on the
circumstances of the documents found to be conditional y exempt, may weigh against disclosure.
The disclosure of the material I have found to be the conditional y exempt could reasonably be
expected to prejudice the protection of individuals’ right to privacy. Such disclosure would not
advance the public interest in transparency or scrutiny of government activities. Another factor
includes the effect of publication would have on future awards where we consider the disclosure of
information would prejudice participation and engagement with individuals and organisations
providing their endorsement in this process. I give weight to this factor against disclosure.
In addition, regarding the operations of an agency, I am satisfied that the potential for damage to an
essential government service and subsequent disruption to their business that could reasonably arise
from the release of the conditional y exempt material in this instance outweighs the factors in favour
of disclosure.
Review rights
If you disagree with my decision, you may apply for Information Commissioner review of the decision.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI 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 after the date of this letter. You can apply using the
OAIC Web Form.10
FOI Complaints
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,
8 section 11B(3)(a) of the FOI Act
9 section 11B(5) of the FOI Act
10 https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=ICReview&layoutcode=ICReviewWF
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you can make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner. A complaint to the
Information Commissioner must be made in writing. You can make a complaint using the
OAIC Web Form.11
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your requests, you can contact the FOI Section by email at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
David Belgrove
Assistant Secretary
Parliamentary and Government Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
23 May 2025
11 https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=Complaint&layoutcode=FOIComplaintWF
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