10 December 2025
Brian
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Brian
DECISION – ABC FOI 202526-068 - NOTICE OF INTENTION TO REFUSE YOUR REQUEST
I refer to your email sent Monday 10 November 2025 seeking access under the
Freedom
of Information Act (Cth) 1982 (the
FOI Act) to (my numbering):
… documents, correspondence, briefing notes, meeting minutes, or internal
communications created or held by the [ABC/SBS] between 1 October 2024 and the
present which relate to:
[1] The recent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) admission of misleadingly edited
footage of Donald J. Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech in its Panorama documentary,
including any internal discussion within the [ABC/SBS] regarding the accuracy,
implications, or potential editorial parallels of this incident;
[2] Any internal reviews, audits, or communications concerning the accuracy or editing
of political coverage produced or broadcast by the [ABC/SBS] involving footage or
commentary about Donald Trump, the January 6 Capitol events, or U.S. election
coverage;
[3] Any documents referencing or resulting from the Heston Russell v ABC (2023) Federal
Court decision, specifically in relation to editorial standards, verification, or policy
reform measures undertaken or discussed within the organisation after theruling [sic];
[4] Any policy documents, directives, or internal communications outlining how the
[ABC/SBS] ensures impartiality, accuracy, and verification of foreign-sourced material
(such as BBC or CNN footage) before it is rebroadcast or edited for Australian
audiences.
On Friday 28 November 2025, the ABC FOI team emailed you noting that you had made
references to the SBS in the scope of your request and could you clarify this aspect of
your request such as by removing references to the SBS. We have not received a
response.
Authorisation
I am authorised by the Managing Director of the ABC to make decisions about FOI
requests under s 23 of the FOI Act.
Legal ABC Ultimo Centre, 700 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
GPO Box 9994 Sydney NSW 2001 |
Email: xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Material taken into account
In making my decision I have considered:
• the scope of your request
• the content of the document/s requested
• the FOI Act
• the guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
under s 93A of the FOI Act (
the Guidelines)
• relevant case law
Locating and identifying documents
The search for documents included approaching the News team and the Editorial team.
Their response indicated that the scope of your request in its current form is not clear
enough to process as it is too generalised, covering multiple subjects and unspecified
areas within the ABC over a 14-month period. I have reviewed a sample of documents
and a variety of document types are captured by keyword searches such as “Trump” or
“BBC” capturing a large number of documents.
This notice is to allow you more time to consider the wording of the scope of your
request and to commence a formal request consultation process under the FOI Act.
s 24AA – Practical refusal reason
Based on preliminary searches, I am of the view that the work involved in processing
your request in its current form will substantially and unreasonably divert the
resources of the ABC from its other operations due to the substantial number of
documents which may fall within the scope of the request (ss 24AA(1)(i) and
24AA(2)(b)(i)).
This is a ‘
practical refusal reason’ under s 24AA. On this basis, I intend to refuse access
to the documents you have requested based on the size of the request. Before I make a
final decision, you have the opportunity to revise your request which is a ‘
request
consultation process’ as set out under s 24AB.
You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out at below.
This letter is a notice under s 24AB, meaning the time to process your request will be
stopped until we have completed consultation with you regarding the scope of your
request, under s 24AB(8).
Examination and assessment time
Based on discussion with the relevant areas of the ABC regarding the scope of your
request, I have considered how much the time it would take the FOI decision maker to
examine, assess and edit the documents in scope in order to process the file and make
a decision on your FOI request. I advise the following:
• to collate and examine all documents takes multiple staff members off their
substantive roles, including the News team, Editorial Policies team, and
members of the leadership team. The News team is the largest team at the ABC
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• teams most likely to hold document have core roles in making content for the
ABC
• you have requested documents held by the “ABC/SBS” – the ABC is not
responsible for documents held by the SBS
• the ABC and SBS are 2 different entities
• please make your own direct request to the SBS
• as you did not respond to our email about this, we have taken it that you
wish to communicate with SBS yourself, and that otherwise the rest of
the request is directed at the ABC
• you have requested documents about different subject matters over a 14 month
period. This would require an extensive search by multiple business areas – the
ABC has thousands of staff. We cannot direct searches ABC wide.
• the ABC’s program material is not subject to the FOI regime under s 7(2), which
includes editorial decisions whether they are made pre- or post-broadcast
meaning that documents created for the purpose of editorial reviews are not
subject to an access request, this means assessment time is increased as
material that cannot be shared under FOI would be captured by the scope and
need to be removed manually
• this can be avoided by limiting the timeframe, the staff required to search
by naming them, or by requesting the most recent 5 emails in a particular
part of the ABC, as an example
• at 4 minutes per page, I consider the estimate is conservative noting:
• it has generally been accepted that between 30 seconds to 5 minutes per
page is a reasonable estimate of time required for an agency to locate
documents using a keyword as broad as “Trump”, “BBC” or “Panorama”.
• The document categories are broad, specifically
“documents,
correspondence, briefing notes, meeting minutes, or internal communications
created or held by the [ABC/SBS] between 1 October 2024 and the present which
relate to:”
• this wording captures ABC content making (which is exempt under
s 7(2), newsletters, external new media coverage, media enquiries,
and would amount to 50 or more hours of document review to
collate and assess how closely these documents match the full
scope
• many of these documents would incidentally mention these topics
without analysing them as part of ABC editorial review, ABC staff
receive bulk mail emails on news coverage which would include
this topic but not in the way the scope appears to intend
• Prior to document review, it takes about 2 minutes per document to save,
label and file each document as a PDF. By the time these documents are
labelled and scheduled, it is estimated to be about
7 to 15 hours before
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they are ready for the decision maker’s final review.
Accordingly, I estimate that it would take up to
50 to 100 hours for business areas to
guesstimate what documents might match an unclear scope.
To do these kinds of searches goes beyond the requirements of s 15 of the FOI Act
without further clarity and narrowing of the scope. In my view you have not provided
enough information for the ABC to reasonably identify documents in scope to the
extent a manageable set of documents would be identified that could be processed
without diverting resources. I note the FOI team has reached out to you by email you
have not responded. In order for the ABC to assist you under s 15, you will need to
engage with the process by email or phone.
Decision making time
I conservatively estimate that it will take 5 hours to draft the FOI reasons for decision
for clearance.
Combining estimates for conducting search and retrieval, examination and
assessment, third party consultation, and the estimated time to draft the FOI decision, I
conservatively estimate that it would take the ABC overall
60 to 120 hours to process
your FOI request, this would depend whether any third party consultation is required.
This would be roughly 2 to 3 weeks’ full-time spent by 1 person on your request.
Diversion of resources
An estimate of processing time is one of the considerations to be taken into account
when deciding whether a practical refusal reason exists. As well as requiring a request
to substantially divert an agency’s resources, s 24AA also requires the request to
unreasonably divert an agency’s resources from its other functions before it can be
refused under s 24.
The Guidelines identify matters that may be relevant when deciding whether
processing the request will unreasonably divert an agency’s resources from its other
functions. These include:
• the staffing resources available for FOI processing
• the impact that processing a request may have on other work in the agency,
including FOI processing, and whether an applicant has cooperated in framing a
request to reduce the processing workload
• whether there is a significant public interest in the documents requested
• other steps taken by an agency or minister to publish information of the kind
requested by an applicant.
The ABC FOI team is small, with 2 dedicated staff to process all requests received
nationally. Processing a request of this size would substantially impact on the ABC FOI
Team operations because of the limited number of people the ABC has available to
process FOI requests. Further, it means that the FOI team would be diverted from its
other functions work which includes responding promptly to the OAIC regarding IC
Reviews, internal support and guidance required regarding FOI matters and reporting,
processing other original decisions, and training and onboarding new team members.
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In addition, multiple teams ABC wide would also be diverted from their principal roles
by making searches for each of the documents requested. At this time of year, teams
are heading towards annual shutdown with skeleton staff over the summer break.
To keep the scope as worded, would require a search of multiple different systems and
teams in an unspecified and unclear manner over a 14 month period. This is a
significant and unreasonable diversion of resources as it would be a very manual
process.
Section 15(2) of the FOI Act requires applicants “
to provide such information
concerning the document as reasonably necessary to enable the [ABC] to identify it”.
In my view you have not provided a scope that is clear enough to process.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For
example, by reducing the amount of documents sought in scope.
Ways you can reduce the scope of your request
Ways to refine the request include limiting your request to:
• limiting searches to a specific team or person, such as
• Director News
• Editorial Director
• limiting searches to the last 5 emails received by a particular person or job title,
or
• focusing on one subject / point only specifying which part of the ABC should
search for documents, and
• removing point 3 as we have linked in the accompanying email the published
results of an independent review into this matter, and
• removing point 4 as these documents are publicly available (see accompanying
email).
Before the end of the 14 day consultation period, the FOI Act requires you respond in
writing to:
• withdraw your request;
• make a new revised request; or
• state you do not wish to revise your request.
The consultation period runs for 14 days starting the day after you receive this notice.
Therefore, you must respond to this notice by Wednesday
24 December 2025.
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During this period, you may ask the ABC’s contact person for help revising your
request. If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical
refusal grounds outlined above, the ABC will recommence processing it.
FOI contact officer
Ph. 02 8333 3312
| email: xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
If you do not respond within the 14 day period in writing, your request will be taken to
have been
withdrawn and closed on that basis after Wednesday
24 December 2025.
If you do respond to narrow your request, would you kindly also confirm whether you
grant the ABC an
extension of time for processing. The ABC would be grateful for a
further 30 days as this may remain a voluminous request. A maximum of 30 days can be
agreed under s 15AA of the FOI Act. We are required to notify our regulator (the OAIC)
if you agree by providing a copy of your email response. This will depend on whether
the revised scope removes the practical refusal reason sufficiently that the request
can be processed.
Please note, the ABC is heading into its annual shutdown period over late December /
early January. This limits the FOI team’s ability to collaborate internally with a large
number of staff being on leave for 2 to 4 weeks. This impacts the ability to receive
searches as well as consult with colleagues about these documents.
Review rights
Your review rights are set out in
Annexure A.
Yours sincerely
Position No. 50045711, KB
Senior FOI Officer & FOI Decision Maker
xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
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Annexure A – Your Review Rights
If you are dissatisfied with this decision you can apply for Internal Review of the decision by the
ABC, or Information Commissioner (IC) Review. You do not have to apply for Internal Review
before seeking IC Review.
APPLICATION FOR INTERNAL REVIEW BY THE ABC
You have the right to apply for an internal review of the decision refusing to grant access to
documents. If you apply for an internal review, a delegate who is not the person who made the
initial decision will undertake a review and make a fresh decision.
You must apply in writing for an internal review of the decision
within 30 days of receipt of this
letter. No particular form is required, although it helps if you set out the reasons for review in
your application and include the decision under review.
Application for a review of the original decision should be emailed to
: xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
or posted to:
FOI team
ABC Legal
GPO Box 9994
SYDNEY NSW 2001
APPLICATION FOR INFORMATION COMMISSIONER (IC) REVIEW
Alternatively, you have the right to apply for a review by the Information Commissioner of the
decision refusing to grant access to documents. Your application must:
• be in writing;
• be made
within 60 days of receipt of this letter (the original decision or the internal
review decision, or a deemed refusal decision);
• give details of how notices may be sent to you (eg. an email address); and
• include a copy of the decision for which a review sought.
Please refer to the OAIC website the IC review process page for further information including
the online form for applying for IC review:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-
of-information-reviews Alternatively, an application for IC Review can be emailed to:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx or
posted to:
Director of FOI Dispute Resolution
OAIC GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
The Information Commissioner has a discretion not to undertake a review.
COMPLAINTS TO THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
You may complain to the Information Commissioner about action taken by the ABC in the
performance of functions, or exercise of powers, under the FOI Act. The Information
Commissioner may make inquiries for the purpose of determining whether or not to investigate
a complaint.
Complaints can be made in writing to:
OAIC - GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
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