Your Ref
Our Ref
LEX 1609
Bob Buckley
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Buckley
Your Freedom of Information request - charge
I refer to your request, received by the Department of Education (department) on 19 June
2025 and revised on 9 July 2025 following a request consultation process, for access under
the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to the fol owing documents:
“information about (records of) communication since 1/9/2024 relating to the National
Autism Strategy (NAS) that was released earlier this year (2025) between officials in your
department and the Department of Social Security (especially its NAS Oversight Committee or
its Secretariat)” excluding duplicates and documents marked ‘Cabinet’ and including only the
final email of email chains (unless earlier emails in the chain contain attachments not
captured by the final email in the chain).
Fol owing the request consultation process under section 24AB of the FOI Act, you asked the
department to ‘
treat [your] request as two separate requests for the periods a) 1/9/2024 to
end of 2024, and b) start of 2025 until 31/3/2025’. However, I have continued to treat it as a
single request because the exclusion of documents marked ‘Cabinet’ was sufficient to
narrow the scope such that the request could be processed by the department within the
timeframes of the FOI Act. In my view, this is more efficient than concurrently processing
two separate requests for substantial y similar documents.
Additionally, in case it assists with any future requests, section 24(2) of the FOI Act provides
that for the purpose of considering whether to refuse a request on the grounds that a
practical refusal reason exists in relation to the request (e.g. where the work involved in
processing the request would substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the
agency from its other operations), the department may treat two or more requests as a
single request if it is satisfied that:
(a) the requests relate to the same document or documents; or
(b) the requests relate to documents, the subject matter of which is substantial y
the same.
GPO Box 9880, Canberra ACT 2601 | Phone 1300 488 064 | www.education.gov.au | ABN 12 862 898 150
Preliminary assessment of the charge
Under the FOI Act, I have decided that you are liable to pay a charge for the processing of
your request. My preliminary assessment of the charge is $410, calculated as fol ows:
Search and retrieval time: 10 hours, at $15.00 per hour
$150
Decision-making time including consultation with a third party, after deduction
$260
of 5 hours*: 13 hours, at $20.00 per hour
TOTAL
$ 410
*The FOI Act provides that the first five hours of decision-making time are free of charge and this is reflected in
the calculation.
I am advised that the department has in its possession 10 documents with approximately
200 pages relevant to your request.
Required action
If you would like the department to continue processing your request, you must notify the
department in writing within 30 days of receiving this notice that you:
• agree to pay the charge
• wish to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed, should be reduced or
not imposed or both or
• withdraw your request.
If you do not respond within 30 days, your request wil be taken to have been withdrawn by
the operation of the FOI Act.
Option - pay the charge
As the charge exceeds $25, you are required to pay a deposit of $102.50 within 30 days of
receiving this notice. You may elect to pay the charge in ful at this point.
Payment can be made by credit card by completing the attached credit card authorisation
and sending a scanned copy to xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
If you are unable to pay by credit card, please contact us on the above email.
Please note that the charge is a fee for processing your request, not a payment for access to
documents. Payment of the charge does not guarantee you access to any or al of the
documents you have requested. Access to documents wil be considered by the decision
maker in accordance with the FOI Act.
Option - seek reduction or non-imposition of the charge
If you want to ask the department to reduce or not to impose the charge, you should tell us
why and give us evidence to support your reasons. You may wish to tel us:
• whether paying the charge would cause you financial hardship and/or
• whether access to the documents is in the general public interest or in the interest
of a substantial section of the public.
We must take these matters into account in deciding whether or not to reduce or not
impose the charge.
Time limits for processing your request
Under the FOI Act, the time limit for processing your request is suspended from today until
the day fol owing payment of the charge (in full or the required deposit) or, if applicable, the
day following a decision not to impose the charge.
To assist you, I have set out the relevant sections of the FOI Act at
Attachment A.
Further assistance
As an alternative, you may wish to consider revising the scope of your request. If you would
like to revise your request, please email xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Lauren
Authorised decision maker
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education
11/7/2025
Attachment A
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Section 29(1) of the FOI Act provides that, where the department decides that an applicant is
liable to pay a charge in respect of a request for access to a document, or the provision of
access to a document, the department must give the applicant written notice. The notice
must state, among other things, that the applicant must within 30 days after the notice was
given tell the department in writing that the applicant:
• agrees to pay the charge
• wishes to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed or should be reduced
or not imposed or both or
• wishes to withdraw the request.
Under section 29(2) of the FOI Act, if the applicant does not do one of these things within 30
days, the request wil be taken to have been withdrawn.
