Our ref: CMTEDDFOI 2025-388
Right to Know
via email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Right to Know
Consultation Notice to Applicant – intent to refuse to deal
I refer to your application under section 30 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2016
(the Act), received by the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development
Directorate (CMTEDD) on 24 October 2025.
You have sought access to:
“I am seeking a copy of documents that list privatisations undertaken by the ACT
Government, the year it occurred and the amount received for the sale.”
Following a request for clarification, you further clarified on 13 November 2025:
“The timeframe is since self-government. By privatisation, I mean ACT Government owned
assets that were sold off as part of the budget process eg ACTTAB, public housing,
commercial properties.”
Authority
I am an Information Officer appointed by the CMTEDD Director-General under section 18
of the Act to deal with access applications made under Part 5 of the Act.
Timeframes
In accordance with section 40 of the Act, CMTEDD is required to provide a decision on
your access application within 30 days. Therefore, a decision is due by
5 December 2025.
Intention to Refuse I intend to refuse to deal with your access application, as dealing with the application
would require an unreasonable and substantial diversion of resources pursuant to section
under section 43 (1)(a) of the FOI Act, because:
• the resources required to identify locate, collate and examine the information would
inhibit the ability of CMTEDD to perform a function, refer 44(1)(a) of the Act, and
• the resources required does not justify the public interest, refer section 44(1)(b) of the
Act.
As your request stands, this application would require a large portion of available FOI
resources to process this request. This request is large in volume, and complex in that
many line areas would need to be consulted, and across multiple directorates and
agencies also in addition to potential third-party consultation would be required. In
addition, much of the information may be publicly available, either through ACT
Government resources or Commonwealth resources. Sifting through large swathes of
documents to determine what has been released, and potentially consulting with third
Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development
GPO Box 158 Canberra ACT 2601 | phone: 6207 7754 | www.act.gov.au
parties over the remaining information would be time consuming for information going
back 30 years.
The public interest that would be advanced by processing this request in its current form
is limited, therefore I have concluded processing does not justify the resources required
to complete it.
Consultation Period
Section 46(1) of the Act requires me to provide you with the opportunity to amend your
application before a decision to refuse to deal with your request can be made. The time
allowed for you to amend your request under section 46(4)(a) is 10 working days from
the date of this notice.
Statement of Reasons
In deciding to intend to refuse to deal with your access application, I have taken the
following into account:
• the Act
• the scope of your request
• correspondence with you
Additional information to assist in rescope
Your request and clarification were interpreted to mean documentation association with
privatisations of any ACT Government asset since self-government. Over 30 years of
documentation regarding sales of public assets would be voluminous.
Much of this information may already be publicly available, for example through previous
budget papers – refer he
re https://www.treasury.act.gov.au/budget/previous-act-
budgets
There may also be information in annual report
https://www.act.gov.au/open/annual-
reports to assist you further with the information you are after.
Should you wish to rescope, we would recommend you request a list of ACT government
assets that have been sold over the last 20 years, including the date of sale. We would
also recommend if there were any exceptions to your scope, for example, you may not
wish to include sales by the Suburban Land Agency.
For records that are more than 20 years old, you will need to apply for this information
via the Archives AC
T https://www.archives.act.gov.au/functions/contact_us. This is
because section 13(1) of the Act provides that records covered by the Territory Records
Act are to be accessed by that legislation.
Action Required by you
We require you to either rescope or withdraw your request.
This notice sets out the grounds for my intention to refuse to deal with your application. I
welcome any consultation with you regarding this Notice of Intent to Refuse, and the
chance to address the concerns raised.
To process your request, you may wish to consider if changing the scope of your request
would provide you with the information you need. We have provided you with rescoping
options and including for us to process your scope would need narrowing of the date
range and removing asking for all documents related to your topic matter.
If no response is received from you by
19 December 2025, I intend to refuse to deal with
your application under section 43(1)(a) and section 44(1)(a) and (b) of the Act.
Should you have any queries in relation to your request please contact the CMTEDD FOI
Team by telephone on 6207 7754 or email
xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx. Yours sincerely
Emma Hotham
Information Officer
Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate
5 December 2025
