OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE
Our reference: FOI 24/25-1601 (LEXD 25)
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 Medium-Term
Accommodation (MTA) funding for NDIS participants who are unable to remain in their
home while undergoing complex home modifications…”
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.
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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:
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 Medium-Term
Accommodation (MTA) funding for NDIS participants who are unable to remain in
their home while undergoing complex home modifications.
.
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.
1 Section 24AB of the FOI Act.
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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:
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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