Docusign Envelope ID: D8FC421C-B679-42DA-8EA0-9A0453A9B9F9
Peter Christensen Senior Information Governance
and Access Officer
University Governance Office
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
5 November 2025
Claire Fenwicke
Via Email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Freedom Of Information Request 202500201– Notice of Practical Refusal
Dear Claire Fenwicke,
On 18 August 2025, the Australian National University received your request seeking access to
documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act)
.
On 12 September 2025, the University contacted you and sought an extension of time under
section 15AA of the Act. Your agreement to the extension was received on the same day. 12
September 2025, providing a new decision date of 17 October 2025.
On 14 October 2025, the University issued you with a Notification of charges, based on the
processing of 2500 pages of information. As no response has been received to the charges
notification, the University has decided to issue you with a Notice of Practical Refusal/ request
consultation. The notice will give you an opportunity to revise the scope of your request to a more
manageable level and potentially reduce the processing time and charges associated with your
request.
I, Peter Christenson, am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions
in relation to FOI requests.
I am satisfied, for the reasons outlined below, that your request in its current form creates an
unreasonable diversion of this agency’s resources. On this basis I intend to refuse access to the
documents you have requested. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (section 24AA of the FOI
Act).
The Australian National University
Canberra 2600, ACT Australia
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University)
CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C
Docusign Envelope ID: D8FC421C-B679-42DA-8EA0-9A0453A9B9F9
However, before I make a final decision to do this, you have 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 under the heading ‘what
you need to do’.
Why I intend to refuse your request
Your request received on (application date) is as follows:
‘I have been made aware of concerns raised about the School of Cybernetics and apparent
marking anomalies. I understand an email was sent to all college representatives and a second
one to the full academic board.
Could I please be sent any communications (emails, minutes, briefings, etc) concerning a decision
about the board to either investigate or not investigate concerns raised about the School of
Cybernetics and its marking scheme?
Can I also please be sent any information about the number of staff and number of students in
the school, what ratio of students are on government-paid scholarships v those paying their own
way, and any discussions for the School of Cybernetics to be included or excluded from Renew
ANU discussions’
On receipt of your request, the University undertook preliminary searches for documents within
scope of the request. As a result of those searches, approximately 2500 pages of information were
identified as potentially relevant to your request.
I have decided that a practical refusal reason exists. Under section 24AA(2) the agency or Minister
must have regard to the resources that would be used for identifying, locating or collating the
documents within the filing system of the agency. In relation to this, I advise the following:
• The ANU has identified approximately 2500 pages of information that appear to fall within the
parameters of your request;
Using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 480 hours to assess and determine
if the information contained within those pages are relevant to your request (based on a
baseline estimate of 5 minutes per page);
• After all information within those pages has been identified to be within scope, internal
consultation is required to assess whether any exemptions may apply, adding further time to
the estimated figure stated above and potentially impacting the work of those areas;
• On initial assessment of the number and type of documents generated regarding this request,
it is likely that a number of third party consultations may also be required, adding further time
to the estimate; and
The Australian National University
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
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• A significant amount of time would then be required to assess, process any consultation
responses, create a schedule and apply any redactions required under the FOI Act.
Charges
The Freedom of Information Act allows for the application of processing charges for matters that
are not of a personal nature.
Although, an estimate of Charges notice was issued to you on 14 October 2025, revision of the
scope of your request, will in effect, negate those charges. New charges will be issued based on a
successfully revised scope.
Please see the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) guidance on charges for
providing access: https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-
guidance-for-government-agencies/foi-guidelines/part-4-charges-for-providing-access
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed. If you wish to revise
your request, you may consider the following options to remove the practical refusal reason:
Specify documents: By providing specific information about exactly what documents you are
seeking, our agency will be able to pinpoint the documents and/or business areas you are
interested in and avoid using excessive resources to locate and process documents that you are not
interested in.
Increase precision: The more precise you can be with your request, the easier it is to locate
documents and process them. If you are aware of a specific document or documents you want
access to, provide as much information about that document as possible to assist with searches.
Broad information leads to broad searches, which leads to increased processing times to work
through the larger number of documents obtained.
What you need to do
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing, in
accordance with section 24AB(6) of the Act:
• Make a revised request – according to the advice above or in another way; or
The Australian National University
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
Docusign Envelope ID: D8FC421C-B679-42DA-8EA0-9A0453A9B9F9
• Tell us that you do not wish to revise the request; or
• Withdraw the request.
The consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you receive this notice.
If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal grounds outlined
above, we will recommence processing it. (Please note that the time taken to consult you regarding
the scope of your request is
not taken into account for the purposes of the 30-day time limit for
processing your request.)
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period, your request
will be taken to have been withdrawn.
Contact officer
If you would like to discuss revising your request or have any questions, please contact our office
via email in the first instance vi
a xxx@xxx.xxx.xx quoting
FOI 202500201 as your reference number
in the subject line.
Your review rights are outlined on the following page.
Yours sincerely
Mr Peter Christensen
Senior Information Governance and Access Officer
University Governance Office
Australian National University
The Australian National University
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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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