Reference: [qA561944] (Application 10/25-26)
Enquiries: xxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
27 August 2025
Dimitri Drougas
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Reverend Drougas,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST – Recent complaint against the Greek Orthodox
Church in Springvale – Acknowledgement and requirement
I refer to your email received by the Greater Dandenong City Council on 20 August
2025 requesting access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the
FOI Act). Specifically you requested:
“A copy of the recent complaint lodged against the Greek Orthodox Church in
Springvale.”
I confirm that Council has received your application above.
Section 17(2A) of the FOI Act requires an application fee of $33.60 accompanies a
request for access before Council can proceed with your request. Government
Regulations set an application fee and Council is bound to work within the rules set by
legislation. Once the correct application fee has been received your request can be
processed.
If you consider payment would cause you hardship you may ask for a waiver or
reduction of the fee. You can do this by forwarding sufficient information for me to
assess your eligibility, such as a copy of your current Health Care Card or Pension
Card, if applicable.
I require either payment, or proof of hardship, before your request can be processed.
No further action will be taken on your request until payment of the application fee is
received, or evidence of financial hardship is provided to support your claim. If your
hardship claim is not accepted, you will be informed and advised of your review rights.
Payment of the required application fee can be made,
quoting reference number FOI
10/25-26 as follows:
By Phone
Calling Customer Service on 8571 1000 to make a credit card payment,
Mon-Fri between the hours of 8.30am - 5pm.
In Person
At any one of our 3 Customer Service Centres
(location details are on the bottom
of
page 1 of this letter).
By Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Account Name: City of Greater Dandenong
BSB: 063 171
Account: 1028 1347
Please quote reference number: FOI 10/25-26
Remittance advice must be emailed to: xxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
Once payment has been received and processed this application will be deemed a valid
request.
The following has been included for your further information:
•
Under section 22 of the FOI Act and the
Freedom of Information (Access
Charges) Regulations 2025, access charges are applicable and Council may
pass this charge onto you. The charges relate to search time and photocopying.
Search time is $25.215 per hour, or part thereof, with time being based on a
routine search.
•
Section 33(1) of the FOI Act states that a document is exempt from disclosure if
its disclosure would involve the unreasonable disclosure of information relating to
the personal affairs of any person. Information relating to the personal affairs of
any person is defined in section 33(9) of the FOI Act as information that identifies
any person or discloses their address or location, or from which their identity,
address or location can reasonably be determined.
If information within documents relevant to your request relates to the personal
affairs of any person, then mandatory consultation is required under section
33(2B) of the FOI Act. The consultation must be conducted to notify the person
who is subject of that information and seek that person’s views as to whether
disclosure of the document should occur.
If it is determined to release any information of a personal nature, the affected
third parties are required to be contacted and advised of their right to appeal the
disclosure of the documents to VCAT. The third parties are provided with 60
days in which to make a decision to refer the matter to VCAT. Until the provided
60 days expires and VCAT confirms that there have not been any appeals
lodged in relation to this matter, the documents cannot be provided. Please note
that notification from VCAT that an appeal has been lodged can take an
additional 30 days.
As some of the relevant documents may contain personal information of other
people (for example, name, address). In order to process your request, I may
need to consult each person to determine if disclosure of their personal
information is unreasonable.
If you are not seeking personal affairs information within documents,
please advise that this is outside of the scope of the request. This
information would then be considered not relevant to the terms of the
request and consultation would not be required.
•
Section 21(2) of the FOI Act states that an agency may extend the 30 period for
deciding a request if consultation is required under section 29, 29A, 31, 31A, 33,
34 or 35. An agency may extend by a period of not more than 15 days, or by a
period of not more than 30 days as agreed by the applicant.
The above advice has been provided to you so you are aware of the requirements of
the FOI Act which will potentially impact upon your request.
The request cannot be
further processed until we receive payment of the application fee and then, under
section 17(2) of the FOI Act, we have 30 days to process the application provided that
we do not require any further clarification from you. In this respect, we may be in contact
with you after receiving the fee.
Should you have any questions relating to this matter please contact me directly on 8571
1471.
Yours faithfully,
Justin Wang
Justin Wang
Freedom of Information Officer
SENIOR GOVERNANCE OFFICER
