Docusign Envelope ID: 259E92C5-48DF-45AE-B118-A382C3245368
Peter Christensen Senior Information Governance
and Access Officer
University Governance Office
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
19 December 2025
Tom Waters
Via Email:
SUBJECT FOI 202500193– Decision Notice
Dear Tom Waters,
On 14 August 2025, the Australian National University received your request seeking access to
documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act)
, in the following terms:
‘I request access to all emails between current/former ANU Council members, and the Chancellor
or the University Governance Office regarding minutes, from 1 January 2024 to the date of
processing this request.’
On 2 October 2025, the University contacted you and advised you that a practical refusal reason
existed in relation to your request and on that basis, I intended to refuse your request. The
practical refusal reason was that the work involved in processing your request in its current form
would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of this agency from its other operations.
You were also advised of the request consultation process where you were able to revise your
request to a more manageable form by reducing or narrowing the scope of your request in order to
remove the reasons for the practical refusal.
On 17 October 2025, The University wrote to you and advised, that as no further correspondence
had been received from you, your request was deemed to have been withdrawn.
On 20 October 2025, your response was received, where you stated that you did not receive the
Notice of Practical refusal.
The Australian National University
Canberra 2600, ACT Australia
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University)
CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C
Docusign Envelope ID: 259E92C5-48DF-45AE-B118-A382C3245368
On 27 October 2025, the University responded to your 20 October 2025 email and advised that the
notice of Practical Refusal for 202500193, was inadvertently sent to the email address for your
202500194 request, however, you should still have been able to see that email. You were further
advised that, in the interest of fairness, the University agreed to give you a further 7 days to revise
the scope of your request.
On 29 October 2025, you revised the scope in the following terms:
all emails between current/former ANU Council members, and the Chancellor or the University
Governance Office regarding requests to amend minutes, from 1 January 2024 to the date of
processing this request.
On 12 December 2025, in response to your scope revision, the relevant area of the University was
contacted and a further search was undertaken in effort to determine if your request could now be
processed. The searches showed that the amended scope still captured a large number of documents and
as a result, the reasons for the Practical refusal still existed. Accordingly, the reasons for the Practical Refusal
had not been removed, and you were also advised that you had a further 7 days to the 19 December 2025 to
further revise the scope of your request.
On 17 December 2025, you further revised your request in the following terms:
Please narrow date range for search to September 2024 to April 2025.
Although, you have reduced the date range for your request, there are numerous email accounts
still requiring searches to be undertaken, in an effort to identify and assess any potentially relevant
documents and there are a large number of relevant documents within the date range.
As you have not sufficiently revised the scope of request, the reasons for the practical refusal have
not been removed. Accordingly, your request is now considered as finalised.
Your review rights are outlined on the following page.
Yours sincerely
The Australian National University
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
Docusign Envelope ID: 259E92C5-48DF-45AE-B118-A382C3245368
Mr Peter Christensen
Senior Information Governance and Access Officer
University Governance Office
Australian National University
The Australian National University
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
Docusign Envelope ID: 259E92C5-48DF-45AE-B118-A382C3245368
Your review rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information
Commissioner review of the decision. We encourage you to seek internal review as a first step as it
may provide a more rapid resolution of your concerns
Application for Internal Review of Decision
Section 54A of the Act, gives you the right to apply for an internal review of my decision.
It must be made in writing within 30 days of receipt of this letter, no particular form is required but
it is desirable to set out in the application the grounds on which you consider the decision should
be reviewed.
The application should be addressed to Freedom of Information at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Application for Information Commissioner Review of decision
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. An application must be made in writing within 60 days of the date of this
letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
Form: either online form or downloadable form available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-
rights/freedom-of-information-reviews/information-commissioner-review
email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Post: Director of FOI Dispute Resolution, GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001
More information is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website.
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-
of-information-reviews
The Australian National University
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
