FOI Request: Sydney Consolidation Project - Eveleigh Precinct Closure
Dear CSIRO FOI team,
I request access to the following information and documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982:
- Minutes, pre-reading, supplemental documents and presentations relating to the "Sydney Consolidation Project" from ET153, ET152 and ET161
- Work product, documents, models and presentations related to the investigation/discussion of alternative central Sydney arrangements such as; taking up a presence at a university, shared working spaces, embedding with a corporate collaborator, committing to a smaller location or reducing the current physical footprint. Limiting these documents to just the Sydney Eveleigh site.
Of course, please remove personally identifiable materials and exclude commercial-in-confidence related materials.
Yours faithfully,
Hubert Farnsworth
Our ref: FOI2025/50
Dear Mr Farnsworth,
Thank you for your email to CSIRO’s Freedom of Information Team. Your email has been received and will be actioned as appropriate.
If an FOI request is valid, a decision in response to the request is due 30 days after the request is received by CSIRO(Monday, 11th August 2025, noting the 30 day processing period falls on Saturday, 9th August 2025. This timeframe can be extended under the FOI Act including where third-party consultation is required. CSIRO notifies applicants when an extension is required.
If an FOI request is not valid, the 30-day timeframe does not commence. CSIRO contacts applicants to advise them of invalidity within 21 days of receipt of the application.
Charges may be imposed for processing your request pursuant to section 29 of the FOI Act. These charges are calculated by reference to the time spent processing a request, including time spent searching and retrieving relevant documents, preparing any documents for release, consulting and decision- making. In the event CSIRO decides that you are liable to pay a charge for the processing of your request, you will be notified of a preliminary charges assessment and you will have the opportunity to contend that the charge should not be imposed or should be reduced.
We look forward to hearing from you.
More information about accessing information held by CSIRO, including via freedom of information, can be found at Access to information - CSIRO.
Kind regards
CSIRO’s FOI Team
Good Afternoon,
I am in the process of actioning your request, and I wanted to seek your guidance on interpreting your request.
In my view, it is open to me to take a narrow interpretation of your request which limits it to 'formal documents that were prepared for the purpose of informing, or consulting with, a decision maker or stakeholder about changes to CSIRO's Sydney offices'. I consider such a request is manageable.
However, there is an alternative broader interpretation of your request which, in my view, would not be manageable. In particular, "work products [and] documents .... related to the investigation/discussion of alternative Syndey arrangements" could capture informal emails among colleagues about site locations which are only tangentially related to the Eveleigh closure, including - for example - discussions about the practical and administrative aspects of any staff moves. To demonstrate this, I have asked our Records team to search the electronic archive for any documents that contain the phrases 'Sydney Consolidation', 'Eveleigh closure' and 'Eveleigh relocation'. This search has yielded over 40,000 results. If this your preferred interpretation, it is likely to result in a s 24AA practical refusal.
Therefore, I wanted to seek your input at this point. Considering the wider context and the likely value of the documents, I believe it is likely that the first, narrower interpretation is the correct one.
I look forward to your response,
Regards,
Mitchell Tucker
Legal Counsel | CSIRO
Dear Mr Tucker,
Thank you for your timely reply.
Yes you are correct about my vagueness, my apologies. Your first interpretation is great. Final formal documents are fine, major revisions would also be useful but i leave this to your discretion about the practicality of that.
No need include informal communications, tangentially related documents, matters relating to administration etc. If I require any of these I will file a more targeted request.
Thank you for you time and effort, it has not gone unnoticed.
In Science,
Hubert Farnsworth
Dear Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's handling of my FOI request 'FOI Request: Sydney Consolidation Project - Eveleigh Precinct Closure'.
This FOI has taken considerably longer than the required 30 day period. I diligently responded to your request for clarification on scope and limited the request in hope of a speedy reply. Please reply to the original FOI. In addition please inform me why there has been a delay.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/fo...
in Science,
Hubert Farnsworth
OFFICIAL
Dear Applicant,
You will note this morning I tried to resend to you the email, containing the decision, that was originally sent to you on 11 August. We have just noted that today's email to you 'bounced back' due to the size of the attachments - the undeliverable report was sent to our 'junk email' folder.
I am now re-sending the decision, schedule, and the documents. However, I will send the documents in two parts. Attached is Part 1, which contains pages 1-131
Could you please confirm if you have received these emails, and if you still wish to request an internal review.
Regards