Our Ref: FOI-2025/0908102613
23 September 2025
Mr Ben Fairchild
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Fairchild,
Request 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 6
September 2025 which requested access to the following documents:
“
a list of all public and private complaints against the Australian Human Rights
Commission and its staff members and commissioners and president and a
copy of each complaint and a copy of the response to each complaint from 1
January 2020 to 1 July 2025.”
In an email dated 9 September 2025, I asked that you consider narrowing the
scope of your FOI request as the scope is very broad in terms of its subject
matter and the timeframe for the documents you sought (covering 5.5 years).
In an email dated 15 September 2025, you revised your FOI request, in effect, to
request the following documents:
a list of all complaints made by members of the public against the
Commission’s mediators, leadership, commissioners or the president and a
copy of each complaint and a copy of the response to each complaint from
2022 to 2025.
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to FOI requests.
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
Australian Human Rights Commission
I am writing to let you know that I consider the work involved in processing your
revised FOI request 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 your revised request,
however, before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to
revise the request. This is called a “request consultation process” as set out
under s 24AB of the FOI Act.
You have 14 days to respond to this letter in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse the request Request would substantial y and unreasonably divert the Commission’s resources
Given the broad scope of your revised FOI request, to process it under the FOI
Act, many parts of the Commission would be required to search for documents
that fall within scope. An estimate of time for just two key groups of the
Commission to search their files to identify documents that fall within scope is
over 4000 hours. In addition to this, other groups of the Commission would be
required to search for documents, and the decision-maker would be required to
review the documents, conduct any required third party consultation and decide
your request.
Given this, I consider that the work involved to process your request would
substantially 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 s24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act.
Request consultation process You now have an opportunity to revise the request to enable it to proceed.
Revising the request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it
more manageable to process.
By
Tuesday, 7 October 2025, you must do one of the following, in writing:
• withdraw the revised request;
• make a further revised request; or
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Australian Human Rights Commission
• tell me that you do not wish to further revise the request.
If you revise the request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal
reason outlined above, the Commission will recommence processing it. Please
note that the time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is
not counted for the purpose of the 30 day time limit for processing your request.
If by
Tuesday, 7 October 2025, you do not consult with me or you do not do one
of the three things listed above, your request will be taken to have been
withdrawn.
If you would like to revise your request or discuss ways that you may be able to
revise your request, please call me on (02) 9284 9658.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Chang
Senior Lawyer
T: 9284 9658
E: xxxxxxxxx.xxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
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