LEX 12768 Notification of practical refusal.pdf

FOI Reference: LEX 12768
File Reference: 25/25675
September 2025
Justice4All
Right to Know
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Justice4All
RE: Freedom of Information Request - Notice of intention to refuse request
I refer to your request received by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (the
department) on 22 August 2025, for access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the
FOI Act) to:
Any documents requested, received, drafted or obtained by DFAT on whether export
permits or approvals for military equipment or components sent to Israel breach
Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide and international humanitarian law.
Documents are limited to all document from October 2023 onwards.
I consider all (draft) versions of these documents relevant. I also consider the name of
all departmental employees and employees of the ministers oﬃce including their
positions and roles relevant to this request.
I am writing to inform you that the department has identified a large volume of material
that would require assessment to determine whether it is suitable for release, the
processing of which we assess (for the reasons set out below) would substantially and
unreasonably divert resources of the agency from its other operations.
However, you are welcome to revise the scope of your request in line with section
24AB(2)(e) of the FOI Act, so that it might be processed.
Sections of the FOI Act referred to in this notice are accessible at www.legislation.gov.au.
Notice of intended practical refusal
In accordance with section 24AB(2) of the FOI Act, I am providing you notice of my intention
to refuse to grant access to a documents in accordance with your request.
R G Casey Building John McEwen Cres Barton 0221
DFAT.GOV.AU
T +61 2 6261 1111
@DFAT

The reason for the proposed practical refusal is that the work involved in processing the
request as it currently stands would substantial y and unreasonably divert the department's
resources from its other operations.
In making this assessment, I have had regard to the time and resources required to process
the request, pursuant to section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act, including the resources involved in
searching for documents, col ating documents, examining the documents, consulting with
third parties, redacting material from the documents and preparing a final decision. I have
been assisted in this task to date by staff in the Middle East Branch.
Preliminary searches by the Middle East Branch have captured over 541 documents and over
1,000 pages of records. I note that this is a preliminary search and two additional line areas
holding documents have yet to undertake searches. This is therefore a conservative
estimate.
The documents would then need to be manually assessed to determine which documents
are within scope of the request and whether they are suitable for release. Given the volume
of pages currently captured in your request and, using the Australian Government Solicitor
Charges Calculator, I estimate the time required to process your request to be at least 85
hours. This incorporates time undertaken to complete searches to date, examine relevant
pages for decision making at 3 minutes per page, redact pages that are partially or wholly
exempt at 2 minutes per page and the decision maker's assessment of the material inclusive
of all pages.
For these reasons, I am of the view that processing your request in its current form would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations
and therefore a practical refusal reason exists within the meaning of section 24AA(1) of the
FOI Act.
Consultation to revise the scope of the request
Pursuant to section 24AB(2)(e) of the FOI Act, you have 14 days from the day you are given
this notice to:
a. withdraw your request,
b. revise the scope of your request, or
c. inform the department that you do not wish to revise your request.
I invite you to contact me (via xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx) should you wish to revise the request in
order that it may be processed.
In your consideration of a revised scope, you may wish to consider:
• Reduce the timeframe of your request (eg; from January 2025 to present); and/or
• Specify the types of documents you are seeking; and
• Exclude draft versions from the scope of your request; and/or
• Limit your request to only documents relating to “export permits or approvals”
regarding Israel.

Please note that under section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act, if you do not consult the contact
person during the consultation period, make a revised request or indicate that you do / do
not wish to revise the scope of your request, your request wil  be considered to have been
withdrawn.
Please also be aware that during this period of consultation, the statutory timeframe under
section 15(5) of the FOI Act for the processing of your request is on hold (see section
24AB(8) of the FOI Act for details).
Contact
Should you have any queries regarding this decision please contact the Freedom of
Information Section by email: xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Brooke
Director
Freedom of Information Section