Catherine Stewart
Senior Information
Governance and Access
Officer
University Governance
Office
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
6 November 2025
Joyce Mayer
Via Emai
l: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Freedom of Information Request 202500253 – Practical Refusal Notice
Dear Joyce,
On 8 October 2025, the Australian National University received your request seeking
access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act)
.
As per our correspondence to you between 30 October 2025 to 3 November 2025, I
acknowledge and appreciate your engagement thus far in trying to refine your request.
Practical Refusal
I, Catherine Stewart, am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to
make decisions in relation to FOI requests.
I have considered the scope of your request and I am satisfied, for the reasons outlined
below, that your request in its current form
1. Would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from
its other operations.
On this basis I intend to refuse access to the documents you have requested. This is
called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (section 24AA of the FOI Act).
However, before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to further
revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under
section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days, commencing the day after you receive
The Australian National University
Canberra 2600, ACT Australia
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University)
CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C
this notice, to respond in one of the ways set out below under the heading ‘what you
need to do’.
Why I intend to refuse your request
Your request received on 8 October 2025 is as follows:
“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-
Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October
2025, inclusive.
I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings,
appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email
accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts
during this period.”
Your refined request on 2 November 2025, after we reached out to you for refinement
and provided you with a rough breakdown of the types of calendar entries that were
originally in scope (and the volumes). Your refinement is as follows:
“… please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September
2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.”
One of the core requirements of making an FOI request is that the request must provide
such information as is reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the
agency to identify a document (section 15(2)(b) of the Act), and for the request to be
processed without substantially and unreasonably diverting the resources of the
agency from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed. Below are
some effective methods that can be used to revise your request.
Specify documents: By providing more specific information about exactly what
documents you are seeking, our agency will be able to pinpoint the documents and/or
business areas you are interested in and avoid using excessive resources to locate and
process documents that you are not interested in.
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
Increase precision: The more precise you can be with your request, the easier it is to
locate documents and process them. Even if you are not aware of what a specific
document or documents are called that you want access to, provide as much
information about the document(s) as possible to assist us with searches. Broad
information leads to broad searches, which leads to increased processing times to
work through the larger number of documents obtained. If a significant number of
documents fall within your revised scope, the practical refusal reason will not be
considered to be removed.
What you need to do
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing,
in accordance with section 24AB(6) of the Act:
• Make a revised request – according to the advice above or in another way; or
• Tell us that you do not wish to revise the request; or
• Withdraw the request.
The consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you receive this
notice.
If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal
grounds outlined above, we will recommence processing it. (Please note that the time
taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is
not taken into account for
the purposes of the 30-day time limit for processing your request).
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period,
your request will be taken to have been withdrawn, and you will receive formal
notification of this once the request consultation process has been finalised.
Contact officer
If you would like to discuss revising your request or have any questions, please contact
our office via email in the first instance via
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx quoting FOI 202500253 as
your reference number in the subject line.
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
Your review rights are outlined on the following page.
Yours sincerely,
Catherine Stewart
Senior Information Governance and Access Officer
University Governance Office
Australian National University
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CRICOS Provider #00120C
Your review rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or
Information Commissioner review of the decision. We encourage you to seek internal
review as a first step as it may provide a more rapid resolution of your concerns
Application for Internal Review of Decision
Section 54A of the Act, gives you the right to apply for an internal review of my
decision.
It must be made in writing within 30 days of receipt of this letter, no particular form is
required but it is desirable to set out in the application the grounds on which you
consider the decision should be reviewed.
The application should be addressed to Freedom of Information at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Application for Information Commissioner Review of decision
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information
Commissioner to review my decision. An application must be made in writing within 60
days of the date of this letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
Form: either online form or downloadable form available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-
rights/freedom-of-information-reviews/information-commissioner-review
email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Post: Director of FOI Dispute Resolution, GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001
More information is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
website
. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-
information-rights/freedom-of-information-reviews
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