31 October 2025
Mr Dean Foley
Right to Know
By email: foi+request-13648-cc1607c4@righ oknow.org.au, foi+request-13649-11f258ab@righ oknow.org.au,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Foley,
Freedom of Information Requests in relation to Ayers Rock Resort
I refer to your requests for access to documents relating to the above matter under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth) (‘FOI Act’) (‘your requests’). I am writing to you in relation to al three of your requests both for
convenience and because they are related matters.
I wrote to you on Friday 10 October 2025 requesting your agreement to extend the processing period for a period of
30 days under s 15AA of the FOI Act. The statutory deadline for the requests was 13 October 2025 and I received
your confirmation for an extension on the 14 October 2025. Your agreement to extend was clear in relation to your
requests pertaining to 1) the acquisition, and 2) performance of the Ayers Rock Resort but was less clear in relation
to 3) the sale.
While we think your intention may have been to permit an extension in relation to al three of your requests, you did
so after the initial due date for the requests. Under s 15AA we are required to notify the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) about extensions for the extensions to be effective and are unable to lodge that
notice where the agreement was after the due date. In practical terms, this means the only way that I would be able
to provide you with a valid decision is if I obtain an extension from OAIC through another part of the FOI Act.
That extension process may involve further delay for you and would not assist with issues we need to seek to resolve
with you about the wide scope of your requests. We therefore think the most expeditious way to move forward could
be for you to withdraw the existing requests and to submit a new FOI request.
While we are keen to engage with you and find a way to process what we manageably can, your requests capture a
very large volume of material. Therefore, if you are open to the proposed approach, we would invite you to consider
focussing the scope of documents you are seeking in your new request to avoid the need for a practical refusal
consultation and possible refusal.
So far, we estimate that there are more than 500 documents that fal within the scope of your requests. We
encourage you to consider which elements of your requests are most vital to you in terms of the outcome you are
searching for and to narrow the scope accordingly. Even if you make separate requests, the workload we would have
to consider would include the ful document set across al of your requests, so we suggest you make a single request.
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Please be advised that the scope may need to be narrowed further if the new request we receive from you remains
similarly expansive.
In addition, we note our response to you on 14 October 2025 with respect to your request for board papers,
approvals, due diligence documents and valuation documents, where we pointed you towards various items on the
disclosure log. It would be helpful to understand whether this has satisfied elements of your requests.
I wish to assure you that we have and continue to undertake significant work to identify and collate documents that
may fall within the scope of your requests. This process of preliminary identification has taken us some time, and I
apologise for not taking steps earlier to refine the scope. Of course, we are happy to discuss your request with you
and welcome a conversation with me via telephone if that would assist. The ILSC Head Office telephone number is
08 8100 7100, please ask for me by name. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Leah Schonfeldt
FOI Officer
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