3
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the documents relevant to the request
• the FOI Act
• Guidelines published by the Of ice of the Information Commissioner under section 93A of
the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
• advice from Departmental officers with responsibility for matters relating to the documents
to which you sought access
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Documents in scope of request
The Department has identified six documents as falling within the scope of your request. These
documents were in the possession of the Department on 22 August 2025 when your request was
received.
Attachment A is a schedule which describes the relevant documents and sets out my decision in
relation to each of them.
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Decision
The decision in relation to the documents in the possession of the Department which fall within the
scope of your request is as follows:
• Release three documents in full
• Release three documents in part with deletions
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Reasons for Decision
Detailed reasons for my decision are set out below.
Where the schedule of documents indicates an exemption claim has been applied to a document or
part of document, my findings of fact and reasons for deciding that the exemption provision applies
to that information are set out below.
6.1 Section 22 of the FOI Act – irrelevant to request
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that if giving access to a document would disclose information
that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request, it is possible for the Department to
prepare an edited copy of the document, modified by deletions, ensuring that the edited copy would
not disclose any information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request.
On 25 August 2025, the Department advised you that its policy is to exclude the personal details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES), as well as the mobile and work telephone
numbers of SES staff and non-public facing email addresses, contained in documents that fall within
scope of an FOI request.
I have decided that parts of documents marked
‘s22(1)(a)(ii)’ would disclose information that could
reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to your request. I have prepared an edited copy of the
documents, with the irrelevant material deleted pursuant to section 22(1)(a)(i ) of the FOI Act.
The remainder of the documents have been released to you as they are relevant to your request.
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7
Legislation
A copy of the FOI Act is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02562. If you are
unable to access the legislation through this website, please contact our office for a copy.
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Your review rights
If you disagree with this decision, you have the right to apply for either an internal review or an
Information Commissioner review of the decision.
Internal review
If you want the Department to review this decision, you must make your internal review request
within 30 days of being notified of this decision.
When making your internal review request, please provide the Department with the reasons why you
consider this decision should be changed.
You can send your internal review request to:
Email: xxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
The internal review wil be carried out by an officer who is more senior than the original decision
maker. The Department must make its decision on the review within 30 days of receiving your
request for internal review.
Information Commissioner review
If you want the Australian Information Commissioner to review this decision, you must make your
request to the Of ice of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) within 60 days of being
notified of this decision.
You can apply for an Information Commissioner review using the Information Commissioner review
application form on the OAIC website.
You can find more information about Information Commissioner reviews on the OAIC website.
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Making a complaint
You may make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner if you have concerns about
how the Department has handled your request under the FOI Act. This is a separate process to the
process of requesting a review of the decision as indicated above.
You can make an FOI complaint to the Of ice of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
at: FOI Complaint Form on the OAIC website.
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10 Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Section at
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours Sincerely
Heike Phil ips
PN 60047910
Authorised Decision Maker
Department of Home Affairs
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