2 April 2025
MatureData
BY EMAIL: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:
FA 25/03/00505
File Number:
FA25/03/00505
Dear MatureData
Freedom of Information (FOI) request – Decision
On 10 March 2025, the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) received a request for
access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request for access under the
FOI Act.
1
Scope of request
You have requested access to the following documents:
The APS Data, Digital and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30 contains a case study titled
Building internal capability to reduce contractor reliance The Department of Home Affairs:
from vision to reality - building APS teams
It discusses the establishment in 2023 of the "Digital Workflow Platforms and System
Support (DWPSS)" section.
I am seeking access to al documents, business cases, etc regarding the Departments
establishment of this section.
2
Authority to make decision
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions in respect of
requests to access documents or to amend or annotate records.
808 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
GPO Box 241 MELBOURNE VIC 3001• Telephone: 13 18 81• Website: www.homeaffairs.gov.au
3
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the documents relevant to the request
• the FOI Act
• Guidelines published by the Office of the Information Commissioner under section 93A
of the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
• advice from Departmental officers with responsibility for matters relating to the
documents to which you sought access
4
Documents in scope of request
The Department has identified eight documents as falling within the scope of your request. These
documents were in the possession of the Department on 10 March 2025 when your request was
received.
Attachment A is a schedule which describes the relevant documents and sets out my decision
in relation to each of them.
5
Decision
The decision in relation to the documents in the possession of the Department which fall within
the scope of your request is as follows:
• Release eight documents in part with deletions
6
Reasons for Decision
Where the schedule of documents indicates an exemption claim has been applied to a document
or part of document, my findings of fact and reasons for deciding that the exemption provision
applies to that information are set out below.
6.1 Section 22 of the FOI Act – irrelevant to request
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that if giving access to a document would disclose information
that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request, it is possible for the Department
to prepare an edited copy of the document, modified by deletions, ensuring that the edited copy
would not disclose any information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the
request.
On 11 March 2025, the Department advised you that its policy is to exclude the personal details
of officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES), as well as the mobile and work telephone
numbers of SES staff and non-public facing email addresses, contained in documents that fall
within scope of an FOI request.
I have decided that parts of documents marked
‘s22(1)(a)(i )’ would disclose information that
could reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to your request. I have prepared an edited copy of
the documents, with the irrelevant material deleted pursuant to section 22(1)(a)(i ) of the FOI Act.
The remainder of the documents have been considered for release to you as they are relevant
to your request.
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6.2 Section 47 of the FOI Act – Documents disclosing commercially valuable
information
Section 47 provides that a document is an exempt document if its disclosure under this Act would
disclose any information having a commercial value that would be, or could reasonably be
expected to be, destroyed or diminished if the information were disclosed.
In determining whether the information within the documents is commercially valuable, I have
had regard to the following factors:
• whether the information is known only to the person for whom it has value or, if it is
known to others, to what extent that detracts from its intrinsic commercial value
• whether the information confers a competitive advantage on the person to whom it
relates – for example, if it lowers the cost of production or allows access to markets not
available to competitors
• whether a genuine "arm's-length" buyer would be prepared to pay to obtain that
information
• whether the information is stil current or out of date (noting that out of date information
may no longer have any value)
• whether disclosing the information would reduce the value of a business operation or
commercial activity, reflected perhaps in a lower share price.
I consider that Documents 2 and 3 contain information of a commercial value and that there is a
reasonable likelihood that value would be, or could reasonably be expected to be, destroyed or
diminished if the information were disclosed.
The information contained within these documents are valuable for the purpose of carrying on
the commercial activities in which the entity is engaged. The information is relevant to the
profitability or viability of a continuing business operation. If the information were to be released,
it could enable a competitor to obtain a commercial advantage over the entity.
I have therefore decided that Documents 2 and 3 are partially exempt from disclosure under
section 47 of the FOI Act.
6.3 Section 47G of the FOI Act – Business Affairs
Section 47G(1)(a) of the FOI Act permits conditional exemption of documents containing
business information where disclosure of that information would, or could reasonably be
expected to, unreasonably affect the organisation adversely in respect of its lawful business,
commercial or financial affairs.
I have considered that part of Document 3, contains information concerning the business,
commercial or financial affairs of an organisation.
The information is in the nature of a list of organisations.
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In determining whether disclosure of the information within the documents would or could
reasonably be expected to adversely affect the lawful business, commercial or financial affairs of
an organisation, I have had regard to the following factors:
The extent to which the information is well known;
Whether the organisation or undertaking is known to be associated with the matters
dealt with in the documents;
The availability of the information from publicly accessible sources; and
Any other matters that the Department considers relevant.
The information contained within these documents is not in the public domain, the organisation
concerned is not generally known to be associated with the matters referred to in these
documents, and the information is not available from publicly accessible sources, such as the
organisation's website. I am therefore satisfied that the disclosure of the information would, or
could reasonably be expected to, unreasonably affect that organisation in respect of its lawful
business, commercial or financial affairs.
I have decided that parts of Document 3 is conditionally exempt under section 47G of the FOI
Act. Access to a conditionally exempt document must generally be given unless it would be
contrary to the public interest to do so. I have turned my mind to whether disclosure of the
information would be contrary to the public interest, and have included my reasoning in that
regard below.
6.4 The public interest – section 11A of the FOI Act
As I have decided that parts of document 3 are conditionally exempt, I am now required to
consider whether access to the conditionally exempt information would be contrary to the public
interest (section 11A of the FOI Act).
A part of a document which is conditionally exempt must also meet the public interest test in
section 11A(5) before an exemption may be claimed in respect of that part.
In summary, the test is whether access to the conditionally exempt part of the document would
be, on balance, contrary to the public interest.
In applying this test, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act and the importance of the other
factors listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act, being whether access to the document would do
any of the following:
promote the objects of this Act (including all the matters set out in sections 3 and 3A)
inform debate on a matter of public importance
promote effective oversight of public expenditure
allow a person to access his or her own personal information.
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Having regard to the above I am satisfied that:
• Access to the documents would promote the objects of the FOI Act.
• The subject matter of the documents does have the character of public importance and
that there may be broad public interest in the documents.
• No insights into public expenditure wil be provided through examination of the
documents.
• You do not require access to the documents in order to access your own personal
information.
I have also considered the following factors that weigh against the release of the conditionally
exempt information in the documents:
• Disclosure of the parts of the documents that are conditionally exempt under section
47G of the FOI Act could reasonably be expected to prejudice the competitive
commercial activities of third party organisations. I consider that this would be contrary
to the public interest and that this factor weighs strongly against disclosure.
I have also had regard to section 11B(4) which sets out the factors which are irrelevant to my
decision, which are:
a) access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth
Government, or cause a loss of 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 document 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.
I have not taken into account any of those factors in this decision.
Upon balancing all of the above relevant public interest considerations, I have concluded that the
disclosure of the conditionally exempt information in the documents would be contrary to the
public interest and it is therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act.
7
Legislation
A copy of the FOI Act is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02562. If you
are unable to access the legislation through this website, please contact our office for a copy.
8
Your review rights
If you disagree with this decision, you have the right to apply for either an internal review or an
Information Commissioner review of the decision.
Internal review
If you want the Department to review this decision, you must make your internal review request
within 30 days of being notified of this decision.
When making your internal review request, please provide the Department with the reasons why
you consider this decision should be changed.
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You can send your internal review request to:
Email: xxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
The internal review wil be carried out by an officer who is more senior than the original decision
maker. The Department must make its decision on the review within 30 days of receiving your
request for internal review.
Information Commissioner review
If you want the Australian Information Commissioner to review this decision, you must make your
request to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) within 60 days of being
notified of this decision.
You can apply for an Information Commissioner review using t
he Information Commissioner
review application form on the OAIC website.
You can find more information about Information Commissioner reviews
on the OAIC website.
9
Making a complaint
You may make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner if you have concerns
about how the Department has handled your request under the FOI Act. This is a separate
process to the process of requesting a review of the decision as indicated above.
You can make an FOI complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(OAIC) at:
FOI Complaint Form on the OAIC website.
10 Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Section at
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx .
[Electronically signed]
Trish
Position number 60209751
Authorised Decision Maker
Department of Home Affairs
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