Our Ref: FOI-2025/0909141239
26 September 2024
JayShah2000
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear JayShah2000,
Request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)
I refer to your request under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act)
received by the Australian Human Rights Commission (Commission) on 5 September
2025 for:
documents about media appointments and copies of diary entries (in relation to external
appointments only) from 1 January 2024 to 1 September 2025 of President Hugh de Kretser,
Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, and Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan
Sivaraman
I am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to FOI requests.
I am writing to tel you that I believe that the work involved in processing the request in
its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the
Commission from its other operations due to the scope of the request. This is called a
‘practical refusal reason’ (s 24AA FOI Act).
On this basis, I intend to refuse access to the documents in the request set out below.
However, before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to revise
the request. This is cal ed 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.
Why I intend to refuse the request
On 6 September 2025, the Commission acknowledged receipt of your FOI request. On
12 September 2025, I emailed you to consider reducing the scope of your request, as
Australian Human Rights
GPO Box 5218
General enquiries
1300 369 711
Commission
Sydney NSW 2001
National Info Service
1300 656 419
ABN 47 996 232 602
www.humanrights.gov.au
TTY
1800 620 241
link to page 2
Australian Human Rights Commission
my preliminary assessment indicated there may be a practical refusal reason under
s 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act.
On 15 September 2025, you replied stating:
It would "substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the Commission from its
other operations (s 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act)." to obtain the schedule from a Outlook
calendar? The software would perform al of the work?
how could you processed this exact same type of FOI request before but now it is a
problem???
What do you mean by type of media appointment or external appointment? Do you have
separate calendars?
I consider that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to the request because the
time and work involved in processing the request in its current form would
substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the Commission from its other
operations. This is because of the volume of material likely to be captured by the
request and the necessary steps in processing the request, as described in more detail
below.
Volume and assessment (including third party consultations) of documents
For the timeline you have requested – 1 January 2024 to 1 September 2025 – there are
52 months of diary entries captured by your request.
1
I obtained the Outlook calendar entries for one (1) month from each of:
- President de Kretser
- Commissioner Finlay
- Commissioner Sivaraman
There were cumulatively 111 entries for external appointments (including media), i.e.
an average of 37 per month. 37 x 52 months = 1,924 entries. Accounting for some
inevitable fluctuations in the number of external appointments each month, even a
conservative figure of 30 each month would require the Commission to assess over
1,500 calendar entries.
1 Noting that President de Kretser started his term on 30 July 2024, and Commissioner Sivaraman
started his term on 4 March 2024.
2
Australian Human Rights Commission
Each entry needs to be reviewed to check whether or not the appointment is already
within the public knowledge and if not, the Commission would need to consult with the
third party or parties who attended or organised the appointment, in accordance with
ss 27 and 27A.
In addition, your request includes “documents about media appointments”. If media
appointments constitute for example, 20% of the external appointments, this would
require the Commission to search for documents related to over 300 calendar entries.
I consider that the work involved in each aspect of your request would substantial y
and unreasonably divert the resources of the Commission from its other operations
due to the scope of the request. This is a practical refusal reason under s 24AA(1)(a)(i)
of the FOI Act.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the specific documents you wish to access.
For example, by providing more specific information about exactly what documents
you are interested in, the Commission wil be able to pinpoint the documents more
quickly and avoid using excessive resources to process documents you are not
interested in.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing:
• withdraw your request
• make a revised request
• tel us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you are
given this notice.
If you revise the request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal
grounds outlined above, we wil recommence processing it. Please note that the time
taken to consult you regarding the scope of the request is not taken into account for
the purposes of the 30-day time limit for processing the request. This means that the
statutory deadline by which the Commission is required to make a decision on your
request may be extended past
7 October 2024.
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period or
you do not consult the contact person during this period, the request wil be taken to
have been withdrawn.
3
Australian Human Rights Commission
Contact officer
If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please contact me using
the below contact information.
Yours sincerely,
Lara Renton
Acting General Counsel
T +61 2 9284 9865
E xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
4
Document Outline
