FOI 25 0424 LD Practical Refusal Notice.pdf

Department reference: FOI 25-0424 LD
Ray D
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Ray D

Freedom of Information Request FOI-25-0424 LD
Notice issued under section 24AB(2) and request consultation process

I  refer  to  your  request  of  9  May  2025,  to  the  Department  of  Health,  Disability  and
Ageing  (the  department),  seeking  access  to  the  following  documents  under  the
Freedom  of  Information  Act  1982  (Cth)  (the FOI Act).  The  scope  of  your  request  is  as
follows:

[In relation to Amplar Health]

All  documents  outlining  the  decision-making  process,  including  but  not  limited  to
internal  briefings,  meeting  minutes,  evaluation  criteria,  procurement  or  tendering
documentation, and approval memos;

Any  documents  (including  emails,  meeting  notes,  or  records  of  discussions)  that
consider or reference alternative providers to Amplar Health;

Any  conflict  of  interest  declarations  or  probity  reports  associated  with  the  selection
process;

Power to refuse request

I am an officer authorised under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to FOI requests.

I am writing to notify you that I believe the work involved in processing your request
in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the
department  from  its  other  operations.  This  constitutes  a  ‘practical  refusal  reason’
under section 24AA of the FOI Act.

I am currently considering refusing your access request on the basis of the practical
refusal reason. However, before I make a final decision on your request, you have an
opportunity to revise your request to remove the practical refusal reason. This is called
a ‘request consultation process’ as per section 24AB of the FOI Act.


GPO Box 9848 Canberra ACT 2601 - www.health.gov.au

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Practical refusal reason

Section 24AA(1) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation
to a request for a document when either (or both) of the following applies:

(a) the work involved in processing the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations; or
(b) the request does not satisfy the requirement in paragraph 15(2)(b).

My assessment of the section 24AA(1)(a) practical refusal reason is as follows:

Search and retrieval of documents

The department has undertaken preliminary searches for documents in scope of your
request, as per the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Freedom of
Information Guidelines [at 3.89].

These searches were undertaken by officers of the department with knowledge of and
responsibility for the subject of your request, having regard to the department’s record
management systems and the age of the documents sought.

This  preliminary  search  has  so  far  taken  the  department  approximately  6  hours  to
identify 160 documents (excluding emails) potentially relevant to your request.

To process your request further and identify all documents relevant to your request,
searches would need to be undertaken within multiple departmental officers’ inboxes,
as  well  as  within  the  department’s  record  management  system,  Content  Manager.
These  searches  would  be  required  to  identify  documents  in  relation  your  request,
which  seeks  access  to  ‘Any  documents  (including  emails,  meeting  notes,  or  records  of
discussions)  that  consider  or  reference  alternative  providers  to  Amplar  Health’  (Emphasis
added).

The  department  has  only  considered  the  preliminary  160  documents  that  were
identified for this practical refusal consultation.

Sampling

As per the FOI Guidelines [at 3.121], the business area responsible for your request has
examined a sample of the documents potentially in scope of your request to determine
the potential processing requirements of your request.

The  department  sampled  160  documents  identified  as  potentially  in  scope  of  the
request, containing approximately 1,163 pages.  As noted above, this estimate excludes
any emails relating to the subject of your request.

Extraction and scheduling of documents

To process your request further, the department would need to extract 160 documents
from  its  record  management  and/or  computer  systems  and  manually  review  each
document to ensure that it falls within scope of your request.

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On the basis that extraction and conversion of documents to an editable format would
take  approximately  1  minute  per  document,  I  estimate  that  the  extraction  process
would take at least 2 hours to complete. Duplicate documents would also be identified
and removed during this process.

The department would then need to create a schedule of documents in scope of the
request. On the basis that it would take approximately 1 minute per document to enter
the required information into a table, I estimate that the scheduling process would take
approximately 2 hours to complete.

Assessment

As an officer authorised to make a decision regarding your request, I would then be
required  to  read  and  assess  each  page  of  each  document  in  scope  of  your  request
against the FOI Act to decide whether to grant, refuse or defer access to the information
in any document in scope of your request.

If all documents identified as potentially relevant to your request were determined to
be in scope of your request, I would need to review 1,163 pages of material.

On  the  basis  that  assessment  would  take  me  an  average  of  3  minutes  per  page,  I
estimate that it would take me 58 hours to make a decision on access to the documents
potentially in scope of your request.

Third party consultation

The department may need to consult with affected third parties in accordance with the
statutory provisions of sections 27 and 27A the FOI Act.

A preliminary review of documents potentially in scope of your request indicate that
2 third parties may need to be consulted in relation to your request, as per section 27
and 27A of the FOI Act.

I estimate that it would take the department approximately 2 hours per consultation
to prepare, send, receive, interpret and apply any correspondence with third parties,
noting that this estimate may change as further assessment work is undertaken.

Document preparation

Once I had assessed each of the documents in scope of your request, officers of the
department would then need to prepare the documents in scope of your request by
applying any relevant deletions or exemptions. Assuming this process would take an
average of 3 minutes per page, I estimate that it would take the department 58 hours
to prepare the documents for decision.

The  department  would  also  need  to  prepare  a  statement  of reasons  as  required  by
section  15  the  FOI  Act.  I  anticipate  it  would  take  an  officer  of  the  department
approximately 2 hours to prepare this statement of reasons for my final review and
decision.

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Summary

As outlined above, I estimate that it would take the department at least 132 hours to
process your request, as summarised below:

Task
Time (hours)
Search for potentially relevant documents
6
Extraction of documents
2
Preparation of a schedule of documents
2
Third party consultation
4
Assessment
58
Preparation of documents
58
Preparation of a statement of reasons
2
TOTAL ESTIMATE OF WORK EFFORT
132

Whether diversion of resources would be substantial and unreasonable

In financial year 2023-24, the department had 7,135 staff, 15 of which were allocated to
processing  of  FOI  requests.  I  consider  that  processing  one  access  request  with  an
estimated  work  effort  of  132  hours  would  represent  an  unreasonable  diversion  of
resources as it would:

•  divert 68 hours work effort of myself, an SES Officer, and support staff from
Aged  Care  Nursing  Policy  and  Programs  Section  a  core  operation  of  the
department.
•  divert 64 hours work effort from the FOI Section, which is required to respond
to all other on hand FOI requests within statutory timeframes.

I further observe that in VMQD and Commissioner of Taxation (Freedom of information)
[2018] AATA 4619 (17 December 2018) [101] the AAT noted:

What  constitutes  valid  practical  refusal  grounds  is  thus  agency  specific  and
resource dependent. Nevertheless for any agency, a burden in excess of 200 hours
would almost certainly make the threshold of a rational and objective test. As is
illustrated  above,  burdens  as  (relatively)  small  as  74  hours  have  been  so
characterised.

As such, I am satisfied that the work involved in processing your request, as currently
presented,  would  substantially  and  unreasonably  divert  the  resources  of  the
department from its other operations.

Request consultation process

You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.

You could revise your request by narrowing the scope of the request and/or providing
greater  detail  about  the  documents  you  wish  to  access.  Providing  more  specific
information about the format, timeframes, and substance of the documents you are

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interested  in  such  as  report  detailing  the  process  and  final  decision  and  probity
documentation will enable the department to conduct targeted searches for documents
of interest.
The request consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you receive
this notice.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing:
• withdraw your request
• make a revised request, or
• tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period,
or you do not consult the contact person during this period, your request will be taken
to have been withdrawn.
If you agree to revise your request in a way that removes the practical refusal reason
outlined  above,  the  department  will  recommence  processing  your  request.  Please
note: as per section 24AB(8) of the FOI Act the time taken to consult you regarding the
scope  of  your  request  is  not  counted  in  the  statutory  timeframe  provided  for
processing your request.
Please contact the FOI section on the contact details below if you have any questions
or require assistance responding to the practical refusal notice.
Legislative provisions
The FOI Act, including the provisions referred to above, are available on the Federal
Register of Legislation website: www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02562
Contact officer
For the purposes of this consultation, the contact officer for your request is:
Tritiya
Phone: (02) 6289 1666
Email: xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Lauren Hendriks
A/g Assistant Secretary
Aged Care Workforce Branch
23 May 2025