Our reference: FOI 24/25-1368
GPO Box 700
10 June 2025
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
ndis.gov.au
Bob Buckley
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Bob Buckley
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 23 February 2025, in which you requested access
under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National
Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the fol owing documents:
“Dear National Disability Insurance Agency, Please provide, in accordance with the
requirements of the Freedom of Information ACT:
a) the data model documentation for the NDIS's PACE computer system that shows the
form of the data describing NDIS participants, their goals, disabilities & impairments, and
information used in developing, monitoring and reviewing their plans;
b) information about carers and associates of NDIS particpants; [sic] and
c) the full meta-data description of the fields in the NDIS's PACE data model.”
Practical refusal
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
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 the NDIA from its other
operations due to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of
the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am
writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
I have consulted with staff in the Technology Services division who conducted a preliminary
search for documents which are likely to be relevant to your request. This search has
revealed that the NDIA is in possession of more than 3200 individual documents matching
the scope of your request, not including any attachments which may be contained within
those documents.
On my reasonable estimate, I consider that there is more than 3700 pages worth of material
that falls within the scope of your request as currently worded. At a conservative estimate of
1 minute per page, this would take an FOI officer more than 61 hours to simply review and
collate the documents.
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The documents that are assessed as being within scope of the request wil then need to be
reviewed for any sensitivities and possible exemption under the FOI Act and scheduled, we
wil need to consider any consultations and carry these out if required, a decision wil need to
be made on each document, and a decision letter prepared. This wil significantly increase
the hours that it wil take an FOI officer to process your request.
As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would
substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, the
NDIA wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive
resources to process documents you are not interested in.
Please find below details of the documents located by the relevant business area that fall
within the scope of your request:
• Consolidated Data Model (17 documents – 166 pages)
• Salesforce Data Dictionary Tables (2 documents – 358 pages)
• Metadata (approximately 3200 documents – 3200 pages)
After reviewing the information, we believe either the Data Model or Data Dictionary
documents would be most relevant to the scope of your request. Please note that a request
including both sets of these documents would stil be excessive, and we ask that you limit
your request to only one.
Therefore, to reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider:
• Caveating the request to narrow the scope of your FOI request to exclude the
documents located under the folder ‘Metadata’
• Selecting either documents under the title Consolidated Data Model or Salesforce Data
Dictionary
You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
following:
a. withdraw your request
b. make a revised request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
You can contact me by email
at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
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Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:
Freedom of Information Section
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Kate (KIM627)
A/ Assistant Director – Freedom of Information
Information Release. Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release
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