I also agree to:
g) administrative release of the requested information if this would assist the Department in
processing the request;
h) referral of this request (in whole or in part) to another Commonwealth agency if required.
2
Authority to make decision
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions in respect of requests
to access documents or to amend or annotate records.
3
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the documents relevant to the request
• the FOI Act
• Guidelines published by the Of ice of the Information Commissioner under section 93A of
the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
• advice from Departmental officers with responsibility for matters relating to the documents
to which you sought access
4
Documents in scope of request
The Department has identified 21 documents as falling within the scope of your request. These
documents were in the possession of the Department on 3 July 2025 when your request was
received.
Attachment A is a schedule which describes the relevant documents and sets out my decision in
relation to each of them.
5
Decision
The decision in relation to the documents in the possession of the Department which fall within the
scope of your request is as follows:
• Release 20 documents in part with deletions
• Exempt one document in full from disclosure
6
Reasons for Decision
Where the schedule of documents indicates an exemption claim has been applied to a document or
part of document, my findings of fact and reasons for deciding that the exemption provision applies
to that information are set out below.
6.1 Section 22 of the FOI Act – irrelevant to request
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that if giving access to a document would disclose information
that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request, it is possible for the Department to
prepare an edited copy of the document, modified by deletions, ensuring that the edited copy would
not disclose any information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request.
On 4 July 2025, the Department advised you that its policy is to exclude the personal details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES), as well as the mobile and work telephone
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numbers of SES staff and non-public facing email addresses, contained in documents that fall within
scope of an FOI request.
I have decided that parts of documents marked
‘s22(1)(a)(ii)’ would disclose information that could
reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to your request. I have prepared an edited copy of the
documents, with the irrelevant material deleted pursuant to section 22(1)(a)(i ) of the FOI Act.
The remainder of the documents have been considered for release to you as they are relevant to
your request.
6.2 Section 42 of the FOI Act – Legal Professional Privilege
Section 42 of the FOI Act provides that a document is an exempt document if it is of such a nature
that it would be privileged from production in legal proceedings on the ground of legal professional
privilege.
I am satisfied that document number 21 and parts of document number 19 comprise confidential
communications passing between the Department and its legal advisers, for the dominant purpose
of giving or receiving legal advice.
In determining that the communication is privileged, I have taken into the consideration the following:
• there is a legal adviser-client relationship
• the communication was for the purpose of giving and/or receiving legal advice;
• the advice given was independent and
• the advice was given on a legal-in-confidence basis and was therefore confidential.
The content of these documents are not part of the rules, guidelines, practices or precedents relating
to the decisions and recommendations of the Department. The documents do not fall within the
definition of operational information and remain subject to legal professional privilege.
I have decided that document number 21 and parts of document number 19 are exempt from
disclosure under section 42 of the FOI Act.
6.3 Section 47F of the FOI Act – Personal Privacy
Section 47F of the FOI Act provides that a document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under
the FOI Act would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information of any person.
‘Personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual
who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the
information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not (see section 4 of the FOI Act and section
6 of the
Privacy Act 1988).
I consider that disclosure of the information marked
's47F(1)' in the documents would disclose
personal information relating to third parties. The information within the documents would reasonably
identify a person, either through names, positions or descriptions of their role or employment
circumstance.
The FOI Act states that, when deciding whether the disclosure of the personal information would be
‘unreasonable’, I must have regard to the following four factors set out in s.47F(2) of the FOI Act:
•
the extent to which the information is well known;
•
whether the person to whom the information relates is known to be (or to have been)
associated with the matters dealt with in the document;
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•
the availability of the information from publicly available resources;
•
any other matters that I consider relevant.
I have considered each of these factors below.
The information relating to the third parties is not well known and would only be known to a limited
group of people with a business need to know. As this information is only known to a limited group
of people, the individual(s) concerned is/are not general y known to be associated with the matters
discussed in the document. This information is not available from publicly accessible sources.
I do not consider that the information relating specifically to the third parties would be relevant to the
broader scope of your request, as you are seeking access to Ye rather than information which wholly
relates to other individuals.
I am satisfied that the disclosure of the information within the documents would involve an
unreasonable disclosure of personal information about a number of individuals.
I have decided that the information referred to above is conditionally exempt under section 47F of
the FOI Act. Access to a conditionally exempt document must generally be given unless it would be
contrary to the public interest to do so. I have turned my mind to whether disclosure of the information
would be contrary to the public interest, and have included my reasoning in that regard below.
6.4 The public interest – section 11A of the FOI Act
As I have decided that parts of the documents are conditionally exempt, I am now required to
consider whether access to the conditionally exempt information would be contrary to the public
interest (section 11A of the FOI Act).
A part of a document which is conditionally exempt must also meet the public interest test in section
11A(5) before an exemption may be claimed in respect of that part.
In summary, the test is whether access to the conditionally exempt part of the document would be,
on balance, contrary to the public interest.
In applying this test, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act and the importance of the other factors
listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act, being whether access to the document would do any of the
following:
(a)
promote the objects of this Act (including all the matters set out in sections 3 and
3A)
(b)
inform debate on a matter of public importance
(c)
promote effective oversight of public expenditure
(d)
allow a person to access his or her own personal information.
Having regard to the above I am satisfied that:
•
Access to the documents would promote the objects of the FOI Act.
•
The subject matter of the documents does have the character of public importance and
that there may be broad public interest in the documents..
•
No insights into public expenditure wil be provided through examination of the
documents.
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•
You do not require access to the documents in order to access your own personal
information.
I have also considered the following factors that weigh against the release of the conditionally exempt
information in the documents:
•
Disclosure of personal information which is conditionally exempt under section 47F of
the FOI Act could reasonably be expected to prejudice the protection of third parties’
right to privacy. It is firmly in the public interest that the Department uphold the rights of
individuals to their own privacy, and this factor weighs strongly against disclosure.
•
I am satisfied that if the Department were to release personal information without that
person’s express consent to do so, it would seriously undermine public confidence in the
Department’s ability to receive, retain and manage personal information. I consider such
a loss of confidence to be against the public interest, and this factor weighs strongly
against disclosure.
I have also had regard to section 11B(4) which sets out the factors which are irrelevant to my
decision, which are:
a)
access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth
Government, or cause a loss of confidence in the Commonwealth Government
b)
access to the document could result in any person misinterpreting or misunderstanding
the document
c)
the author of the document was (or is) of high seniority in the agency to which the request
for access to the document was made
d)
access to the document could result in confusion or unnecessary debate.
I have not taken into account any of those factors in this decision.
Upon balancing all of the above relevant public interest considerations, I have concluded that the
disclosure of the conditionally exempt information in the documents would be contrary to the public
interest and it is therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act.
7
Legislation
A copy of the FOI Act is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02562. If you are
unable to access the legislation through this website, please contact our office for a copy.
8
Your review rights
Internal review
You do not have the right to seek an internal review of this decision. This is because section 54E(b)
of the FOI Act provides that, when an agency is deemed to have refused an FOI request under
section 15AC of the FOI Act, the applicant does not have the right to seek an internal review of the
deemed decision.
The Department was deemed to have refused your request under section 15AC of the FOI Act
because it did not make this decision within the statutory timeframes for the request.
While the Department has now made a substantive decision on your request, section 15AC of the
FOI Act continues to apply to your request, which means that any request you make for internal
review will be invalid.
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Information Commissioner review
You can instead request the Australian Information Commissioner to review this decision. If you want
to request an Information Commissioner review, you must make your request to the Of ice of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) within 60 days of being notified of this decision.
You can apply for an Information Commissioner review at:
Information Commissioner review
application form on the OAIC website.
If you have already applied for an Information Commissioner review, there is no need to make a new
review request. The OAIC wil contact you shortly to give you an opportunity to advise whether you
wish the review to continue, and to provide your reasons for continuing the review.
You can find more information about Information Commissioner reviews
on the OAIC website.
9
Making a complaint
You may make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner if you have concerns about
how the Department has handled your request under the FOI Act. This is a separate process to the
process of requesting a review of the decision as indicated above.
You can make an FOI complaint to the Of ice of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
at
: FOI Complaint Form on the OAIC website.
10 Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Section at
xxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
Jodi
Position number 60045916
Authorised Decision Maker
Department of Home Affairs
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