Attachment B – Reasons – Freedom of Information
Request No. LEX9423
Authority
As a Senior Government Lawyer, I am an authorised decision-maker under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Retrieval process To identify documents for your request, I arranged for relevant staff likely to be able identify documents
to undertake a comprehensive search of the relevant electronic holdings used by the AEC.
In particular, I arranged for the area of the AEC responsible for party registration to conduct a search
to identify relevant documents.
Relevant Documents
With regard to the Relevant Documents identified in At achment A, I have decided:
Access in full
a) to grant access in full to Document Nos 1, 3, 4, 6
Edited copies
b) to grant access to an edited copy of the following documents from which exempt matter
and irrelevant information has been deleted under section 22 of the FOI Act:
i. 2, 5, 7, 8, 9
Refuse access
c) No documents.
Material taken into account I have taken the following material into account in making my decision:
a) the content of the documents that fall within the scope of your FOI Request;
b) the FOI Act, specifically section 47F;
c) the guidelines (
‘FOI Guidelines’) issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
section 93A of the FOI Act;
d) t
he FOI Guidance Notes, July 2011 issued by the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet; and
e) the
Privacy Act 1988.
Detailed Reasons
Attachment A indicates each Relevant Document to which access is refused or access is granted.
My reasons for refusing or granting access are given below.
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Exemptions
Findings
Attachment A identifies the documents to which I consider 47F applies. With respect to these
documents I found that:
(a) Documents 5, 7, 8 and 9 contain information to which section 47F applies.
Consideration
Section 47F of the FOI Act conditionally exempts a document if its disclosure under the FOI Act
would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person (with certain
exceptions regarding the disclosure to a person of their own personal information).
Subsection 47F(1) of the FOI Act provides:
47F Public interest conditional exemptions – personal privacy
General rule
(1) A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would involve the
unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person (including a
deceased person).
I consulted with third parties as to the disclosure of personal information contained in the
documents. As no response was received relevant to s 47F, I considered it appropriate to consider
the following factors in my decision:
(a) The extent to which the information is well known;
(b) 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
(c) The availability of the information from publicly accessible sources
(d)
Part 6 (Conditional Exemptions) of the FOI Guidelines
Initial Outcome Accordingly, I am satisfied that documents 5,7, 8 and 9 contain information that should be exempt
under s 47F of the FOI Act.
Weighing of public interest factors Under subsection 11A(5) of the FOI Act, the AEC (as an agency) must give the person access to
the document if it is conditional y exempt at a particular time unless (in the circumstances) access
to the document at that time would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest.
My weighing of public interest factors follows:
(a) I identified the following harm that would affect the third party consulted:
i. An individual’s persona safety could be impacted by the information contained in the
documents.
(b) I considered the following factors favouring disclosure:
i. The objects of the FOI Act
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(c) I consider the following factors militate against disclosure:
i. The information contained in the documents is not well known.
ii. The information contained in the documents is not known to be associated with the
matters dealt with in the documents.
Final Outcome Accordingly, I am satisfied that the Document Nos. 5, 7, 8 and 9 contain personal information
exempt under s 47F.
Preparation of edited copy
In accordance with section 22 of the FOI Act, I considered whether it is possible and
practicable to prepare an edited copy of each of Document Nos. 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9 from which
exempt and irrelevant material is redacted.
Findings
I found that:
(a) it is possible to prepare an edited copy of each of Document Nos. 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9
modified by deletions, ensuring that:
(i) access to each edited copy would be required to be given under
section 11A (access to documents on request) of the FOI Act; and
(ii) each edited copy would not disclose any information that would
reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the FOI Request;
(b) it is reasonably practicable for the AEC to prepare each edited copy, having regard to:
(i) the nature and extent of the modifications; and
(ii) the resources available to modify each document; and
(c) it is not apparent that you would decline access to an edited copy.
I had regard to section 22 of the FOI Act and paragraphs 3.95–3.100 of the FOI Guidelines.
Outcome
I concluded that it is both possible and practicable to prepare an edited copy of Document
Nos. 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9 from which exempt and irrelevant matter is redacted.
Yours sincerely
Michael
Position no. 10174
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Document Outline
