LEX 12931 Consultation notice.pdf

FOI Reference: LEX 12931
File Reference: 25/28921

November 2025
Francis Unmeopa
Right to Know

By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Francis Unmeopa

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 30 September 2025 for access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the FOI Act) to:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, I request access to:
All documents, correspondence, emails, ﬁle notes, memoranda, and records held by
Department of Foreign Aﬀairs and Trade  (DFAT) that relate to any contact,
communication, or request for information from the Honours and Awards Secretariat
and/or the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (or any oﬃcer acting on
behalf of either) concerning

The attack on the Serena Hotel, Kabul, Afghanistan on 14 January 2008; and/or The
actions of Australian civilians and/or Australian embassy staﬀ present at the Serena
Hotel during the attack on 14 January 2008; and/or Any inquiry, investigation, or
information gathering related to the conduct or actions of individuals at the Serena
Hotel on 14 January 2008.

Time period: 1 January 2008 to present date.
This includes but is not limited to: requests for witness statements, incident reports,
security assessments, personnel records, commendations, citations, or any other
documentation related to the above incident.

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.

R G Casey Building John McEwen Cres Barton 0221
DFAT.GOV.AU
T +61 2 6261 1111
@DFAT

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.

The reason for the proposed practical refusal is that the work involved in processing the
request as it currently stands would substantially 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, collating 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 Mainland South and Central Asia Branch and
Data and Service Delivery Governance Branch.

Preliminary searches have captured 354 documents and over 714 pages of records. 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 66
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 3 minutes per page and that the decision makers 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:

•  Limiting the types of documents you are seeking, for example: final letters; and/or

•  Exclude internal correspondence from the scope of your request; and/or
•  Exclude publicly available material; and/or
•  Narrowing or specifying the subject matter of your request, for example: final
reports regarding the Serena Hotel attack on 14 January 2008.

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 will 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

Aaron
A/g Director
Freedom of Information Section