FOI Reference: LEX 13246
File Reference: 26/4366
31 January 2026
Thu Phuong
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Thu Phuong
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 13 January 2026 for access under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the
FOI Act) to:
all documents, including emails, and its attachments, and its forwarding details sent to
or from the email address Amanda.Kyd dfat.gov.au (add @ before dfat)
(xxxxxx.xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx) during the period from 1 January 2025 to 1 March 2025
inclusive
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 I 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 (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.
Authority
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
FOI requests.
Notice of intended practical refusal
In accordance with section 24AB(2) of the FOI Act, I am providing you with notice of my
intention to refuse to grant access to 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.
R G Casey Building John McEwen Cres Barton 0221
DFAT.GOV.AU
T
+61 2 6261 1111
@DFAT
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 Cyber Security, Cloud, Networks
Branch whose searches captured 3,600 documents consisting of 5GB of emails.
These documents 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 215 hours.
This incorporates the time taken to complete searches to date, to examine relevant pages
for decision making at 2 minutes per page, to redact pages that are partially or wholly
exempt at 2 minutes per page and for the decision maker to assess the material and make
their decision.
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 scope of your
request to only emails sent to/from
xxxxxx.xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx that were sent from a single
email address.
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
Jonathan Messieh
A/g Director
Freedom of Information Section
