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Our reference: FOI 24/25-1592 (LEXD 18)  
 
 
GPO Box 700 
 
Canberra   ACT   2601 
12 June 2025 
1800 800 110 
 
ndis.gov.au 
 
Gemma Jones 
Right to Know 
 
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx  
 
 
Dear Gemma Jones 
 
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process 
 
Thank you for your correspondence of 21 March 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 following documents: 
 
“…I am requesting access to all documents, guidelines, policies, assessment tools, and 
internal communications relating to the determination and approval of funding for dietetic 
supports for NDIS participants…” 
 
On 29 May 2025, we wrote to you and advised that your request did not satisfy section 
15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, as the terms of your request were too broad, and we were unable to 
identify the specific documents sought. In our email we sought further information from you 
about the documents you were requesting access to. 
 
I confirm to date; I have not received a response from you. 
 
Internal Consultation 
Based on your scope of request, I initiated a search for documents within the following NDIA 
business areas:  
 
 Service 
Guidance 
 
 Scheme 
Policy 
 
At the conclusion of my searches, senior staff in the aforementioned business areas advised 
that processing your request in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert 
the resources of the NDIA from its other operations due to its broad scope. 
 
Practical refusal reason 
At this stage, it is my opinion that the scope of your request is not clear enough for me to 
undertake searches for document on NDIA systems. As per section 15(2)(b) of the Freedom 
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), a FOI request must provide enough information about a 
document to enable an officer of the Agency to identify it.  
 
I therefore intend to refuse your request on the basis of a ‘practical refusal reason’ under 
section 24AA of the FOI Act. A practical refusal reason exists if either (or both) of the 
following applies: 
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a)  the work involved in the processing of the request would substantially and 
unreasonably divert the resources of the Agency from its other operations; and/or 
 
b)  the request does not satisfy the requirement in section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, which 
requires an FOI applicant to provide such information concerning the document/s 
they are seeking access to, to enable the Agency to be able to identify it or them 
 
In reaching this view, I have taken account the following:  
 
  the scope of your request 
  the internal advice from the above business areas, who are the subject matter 
experts within the NDIA.  
 
However, before I make a final decision, I am writing to provide you with an opportunity to 
revise your request.1 This is called a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under section 
24AB of the FOI Act.  
 
I am authorised to make this decision under section 23(1) of the FOI Act. 
 
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 will be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive 
resources to process documents you are not interested in. 
 
To reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider revising the scope to: 
 
From 21 March 2024 to 21 March 2025 (being the date of this request): 
 
  Guidelines and policies relating to the determination and approval of funding for 
dietetic supports for NDIS participants. 
 
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 will recommence processing it. 
 
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not 
taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request. 
 
If you wish to discuss this process, please contact me by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. 
 
Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:  
 
 
1 Section 24AB of the FOI Act. 
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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 
 
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 26 June 2025, then then we will 
continue to process your request with the current scope of request. 
 
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
 
 
 
Wendy (WNN633) 
Senior Freedom of Information Officer 
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch 
Reviews and Information Release Division 
 
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