Our reference: FOI 25/26-0105 (LEXD 1458)
GPO Box 700
15 September 2025
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
ndis.gov.au
David Wright
Right to Know
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear David Wright
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 15 July 2025, in which you requested access under
the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National Disability
Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the fol owing documents:
FOI 24/25-0251, document 2 includes a Ministerial Brief that records Matthew
Swainson, Chief Counsel, as the contact officer.
I request copies of all briefings provided to the Minister for the NDIS, and/or to the
CEO of the NDIA, which record Matthew Swainson as the contact officer.
Practical refusal
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
I am writing to advise that the work involved in processing your request in its current form
would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other
operations due to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of
the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am
writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
On 13 August 2025, we advised you that your request did not satisfy section 15(2)(b) of the
FOI Act, as the terms of your request were too broad and we were unable to identify the
specific documents sought. We sought further information from you about the documents
you were requesting access to.
On 14 August 2025, you provided the following clarification:
1) I am referring to all NDIS Ministers and all CEOs who occupied those roles
once Mr Swainson was appointed to the position of Chief Counsel.
2) I refer to all briefings that are in the form contained in FOI 24/25-0251,
document 2, i.e. formal briefing notes with standardised fields. I note that the briefing
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at FOI 24/25-0251, document 2 is given the file name ‘MB22-000042’. I assume all
such Ministerial briefings in this form are also given a discrete briefing number in the
‘MB’ sequence, and that there is also a standardised briefing note file
pathway/sequence for al briefings to the CEO. I am not requesting other forms of
briefings, such as email briefings.
3) The method of confirming Mr Swainson as the contact officer would be as
listed in that field of the formal briefing note. I assume ‘Contact’ (or an equivalent
such title in the CEO briefing note template, should it be slightly different) is a
standard field of the briefing note template, so this should be readily searchable to
identify the requested briefings. Please also include all briefings where Mr
Swainson’s name is listed in the ‘Cleared by’ field.
4) The date range is from the time Mr Swainson was appointed to the position
of Chief Counsel.
On 15 August 2025, my colleague Laura explained how we would be conducting searches,
and the search terms we would use to identify documents that may be relevant to your
request. Following that correspondence, we have now completed the preliminary searches
for documents within PDMS. These searched have identified that there are more than 500
documents that may fall within the scope of your request, not including any attachments
which may be contained within those documents.
Given the nature of the documents that you are seeking access to, the identified documents
span across multiple business areas. To process the request as currently worded, it will
require engagement with multiple staff across these business areas who would need to be
taken offline from their core duties to work in close consultation with the FOI team to conduct
a detailed review of each of these documents for any sensitivities and possible exemption
under the FOI Act, and consider any internal or external consultations and carry these out if
required. A decision wil need to be made on each document, the documents wil need to be
scheduled and a decision letter prepared.
I estimate that it wil take at least one hour per document to process your request as
currently worded, meaning it wil take over 500 hours. This equates to more than 13 weeks
of ful time work to process this request.
As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would
substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, the
NDIA wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive
resources to process documents you are not interested in.
To reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider:
• reducing the date scope of your request
• selecting a particular topic/subject that you may be interested in.
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You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
following:
a. withdraw your request
b. make a revised request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.
You can contact me by email
at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:
Freedom of Information Section
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by
5pm, 29 September 2025, your FOI
request wil be taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and wil not be dealt
with any further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Carolyn [CJW205]
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
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