Our reference: FOI 24/25-1817 (LEXD 284)
OAIC reference: MR25/01291
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
18 August 2025
ndis.gov.au
BS
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear BS
Freedom of Information request — Notice of revised decision under section 55G of
the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Thank you for your correspondence of 20 April 2025, in which you requested access to
documents held by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), under the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request.
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the fol owing documents:
“…I request access to the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
- The chart of accounts in use by the NDIA, including account codes and descriptions
- Al associated explanatory and training documentation in use by accounting staff…”
On 29 April 2025, you provided clarification on your request, specifical y:
'Accounting Staff' is referring to employees including & under the Chief Financial
Officer, and thus the requested 'notes and training documentation' is the documents
relevant to such employees only. Other departments are beyond the scope of this
request.
For limiting of scope, I am looking for such documents that directly reference the
Chart of Accounts including examples of allocating income/expenditure, creating and
modifying accounting codes etc; I wil need these documents in their entirety.
Training and reference documents that do not directly reference the Chart of
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Accounts (for example, Working from Home policies, office OH&S procedures for
CFO staff and similar extraneous documents) can be listed as a summary table of
the training document titles only, and do not need to be included in full.
Processing Timeframes
The FOI Act provides 30 calendar days for the processing of an FOI request after it is
received. As your valid FOI request was received on 20 April 2025, the original due date for
your request was 20 May 2025.
On 7 May 2025, you agreed to a 30-day extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI
Act, making 19 June 2025 the new date to provide you with a decision on access, I
apologise for the delay.
As we were not able to complete your application by the legislated due date, we are
regarded as having refused your application under section 15AC of the FOI Act. Despite this,
I have continued to process your application.
I note that you have now applied to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(OAIC) for a review by the Information Commissioner (IC) of our deemed refusal.
Revised Decision Under Section 55G
Section 55G(1)(a) of the FOI Act provides that at any time during an IC review, an Agency
may vary an access refusal decision in favour of the applicant by giving access to
documents in accordance with the request (revised decision).
Section 55G(2) provides that an Agency must notify the IC of the revised decision, and that
decision becomes the decision under review.
Searches Conducted
A Search was conducted by the following business area for documents relevant to the scope
of your FOI request:
• Chief Financial Division
As a result of these this search, eight (8) documents were located, this search was
undertaken between 28 April and 29 July 2025 and was overseen by senior staff.
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Decision on access to documents
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act, including revised
decisions under 55G of that Act.
I have decided to:
• Grant access in full to 2 documents
• Grant access in part to 6 documents in accordance with section 22 –
Access to
edited copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted on the grounds that the
deleted material is considered exempt under 47E(d) –
Public interest conditional
exemptions – certain operations of agencies; and
• Remove irrelevant material in accordance with section 22 of the FOI Act
Section 22 – Access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant material deleted
Section 22 of the FOI Act permits an agency to prepare and provide an edited copy of a
document where the agency has decided to refuse access to an exempt document or that to
give access to a document would disclose information that would reasonably be regarded as
irrelevant to the request for access.
On 29 April 2025, you confirmed via email that you had no objections to staff names being
considered irrelevant to the scope of your request.
I have identified both exempt and irrelevant material in six (6) documents and am satisfied
that it is reasonably practicable to remove this material and release the documents to you in
material form.
The decision in relation to each document is detailed in the schedule of documents at
Attachment A.
A statement of reasons for this decision are set out in
Attachment B.
Rights of review
In accordance with section 55G(2) of the FOI Act, I wil be providing the IC with a copy of this
revised decision.
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If you determine that you are satisfied with this revised decision and do not require this
decision to be reviewed further by the IC, please let the Agency and the OAIC know.
Should you have any enquiries concerning this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me
by email
at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Patrick (PHO293)
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
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Attachment A
Schedule of Documents for FOI 24/25-1817 | MR25/01291
Document
Page
Description
Access Decision
Comments
number
number
1
1-24
Perform Chart of Accounts Update
PARTIAL ACCESS
Irrelevant material removed
SOP
under section 22 of the FOI
Act
Date: July 2023
2
25-48
NDIA Chart of Accounts – Expense
PARTIAL ACCESS
Date: 6 August 2024
Exemption(s) claimed:
s47E(d) – certain operations of agencies
3
49-50
NDIA Chart of Accounts – Revenue
PARTIAL ACCESS
Date: 6 August 2024
Exemption(s) claimed:
s47E(d) – certain operations of agencies
4
51-56
NDIA Chart of Accounts – Asset
PARTIAL ACCESS
Date: 6 August 2024
Exemption(s) claimed:
s47E(d) – certain operations of agencies
5
57-60
NDIA Chart of Accounts – Liability
PARTIAL ACCESS
Date: 6 August 2024
Exemption(s) claimed:
s47E(d) – certain operations of agencies
6
61
NDIA Chart of Accounts – Equity
PARTIAL ACCESS
Date: 6 August 2024
Exemption(s) claimed:
s47E(d) – certain operations of agencies
5
Document
Page
Description
Access Decision
Comments
number
number
7
62-68
NDIA Chart of Accounts –
FULL ACCESS
Unmapped GLs
Date: Undated
8
69-71
NDIA Chart of Accounts - Terms
FULL ACCESS
Date: Undated
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Attachment B
Statement of Reasons
FOI 24/25-1834 | MR25/01291
_________________________________________________________________________
In reaching my decision, I took the fol owing into account:
• your correspondence outlining the scope of your request
• the nature and content of the documents falling within the scope of your request
• the FOI Act
• the FOI Guidelines published under section 93A of the FOI Act
• the notice of IC review
• consultation with relevant NDIA staff
• Factors relevant to my assessment of whether or not disclosure would be in the public
interest
• The NDIS’s operating environment and functions
Certain operations of agencies (section 47E(d))
Section 47E(d) of the FOI Act conditionally exempts a document if its disclosure would, or
could reasonably be expected to, have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and
efficient conduct of the operations of an agency.
Documents 2-6 contain NDIA internal email addresses for various areas of the agency which
are not publicly available. These internal email addresses allow agency staff to identify and
communicate with other areas of the agency and are therefore vital to the proper and
efficient conduct of the NDIA’s operations. Because the agency wil lose control of these
documents once disclosed, disclosing the email addresses under the FOI Act is effectively
disclosing them to the world at large. I am satisfied that such disclosure would result in a
reasonable likelihood that aggrieved members of the public would utilise them to circumvent
appropriate, publicly available points of contact within the agency. If this were to occur, it
would affect the NDIA’s ability to address grievances and complaints in a structured and
efficient manner. Such an outcome would be both substantial and adverse.
Public interest considerations – section 47E(d)
Section 11A(5) of the FOI Act provides that access to a document covered by a conditional
exemption must be provided unless disclosure would be contrary to the public interest.
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I have not considered any of the irrelevant factors as set out under section 11B(4) of the FOI
Act in making this decision.
In favour of disclosure, I have considered the factors outlined in section 11B(3) of the FOI
Act, and I have determined that disclosure of the relevant information in Documents 2-6
would promote the objects of the FOI Act by providing access to documents held by the
government and/or providing access to information relating to the participant.
Against disclosure, I consider that disclosure of the relevant information in Documents 2-6:
• would not contribute to the publication of information of sufficient public interest to justify
the likely harm caused by release
• would not enhance Australia’s representative democracy in the ways described in
section 11B(3) of the FOI Act
• would not inform any debate on a matter of public importance, or promote oversight of
public expenditure.
While there is limited public interest in the disclosure of information conditionally exempt
under section 47E(d) of the FOI Act, the harm that would result from disclosure is that it
could reasonably be expected to:
• prejudice the ability of the Agency to protect established contact points and procedures
of the Agency
In summary, I am satisfied that the factors against disclosure of the information outweigh the
factors in favour of disclosure and that, on balance, it would be contrary to the public interest
to release this information to you. Accordingly, I have decided that the relevant information in
Documents 2-6 is exempt under section 47E(d) of the FOI Act.
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