OFFICIAL: Sensitive - Personal Privacy

Good afternoon,

We refer to your freedom of information (FOI)  request below, which has
been allocated reference number CMTEDDFOI 2026-021.

For a FOI request to be valid, we require more information from you to be
able to identify the information applied for.

Can you please provide us with some more details on what you are looking
for and some background context.

Section 30 of the Freedom of Information Act 2016 (the Act) states:

 1. A person may apply for access to government information to the agency
or Minister responsible for the information.

 (2) The application must include—

 (a) enough detail to enable an agency or Minister to identify the
government information applied for;

Any additional context or background you can provide us, such as who or
what the emails were about, is required as your request is not very
specific for conducting searches. The information may also relate to other
Directorates, depending on the subject-matter of the emails, which will
also help with finding replies (if any). There has been more than one
person with that name in ACT Government. If you are requesting emails from
the former Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, can you please confirm,
and provide some details on what you are looking for.

Additional information for you to consider in any rescope

If you already have a copy of any of emails in the correspondence chain,
you can provide copies by reply email. If your request is information not
held by CMTEDD, we may need to transfer you request to another Agency,
Directorate or Minister’s Office. Accordingly, you may also wish to
consider sending your request to that Directorate, etc. Further
information can be found by this link:

[1]https://www.act.gov.au/directorates-and-...

Please note that the processing of your request is on hold pending a reply
to our email. We are assisting you under section 31 of the Act as your
request application is currently not in accordance with the requirements
of the Act. If we do not receive a reply by 28 April 2026, we need not
deal with your request further after that date.

If you would like to provide us with any other contact information, we can
contact you (for example a phone number or private email address) sent to
[2][email address] with subject reference CMTEDDFOI 2026-021.

If the emails were either about you, or if you are acting on behalf of
someone else as an agent, can you please let us know.

Kind regards

CMTEDD FOI Team

Phone: 02 6207 7754 |[3][email address]

Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate | ACT
Government

220 London Circuit, Canberra City | GPO Box 158 Canberra ACT 2601 |
[4]www.act.gov.au

A new smart form is being introduced for all ACT Government FOI access
applications.

Check here [5]Access ACT Government information - ACT Government

[6]https://www.act.gov.au/directorates-and-...

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OFFICIAL: Sensitive - Personal Privacy

Good afternoon,
Thank you for your reply. Information you requested information may possibly not be held by our Directorate. Accordingly we are making enquiries where the management of your request best fits.
We will continue to search for records and process your request. A formal acknowledgement will issue in due course.

Kind regards
CMTEDD FOI Team
Phone: 02 6207 7754 |[email address]
Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate | ACT Government
220 London Circuit, Canberra City | GPO Box 158 Canberra ACT 2601 | http://www.act.gov.au/
A new smart form is being introduced for all ACT Government FOI access applications.
Check here Access ACT Government information - ACT Government
https://www.act.gov.au/directorates-and-...

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OFFICIAL: Sensitive - Personal Privacy

Good afternoon

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACCESS APPLICATION

I refer to your access application sent to the Chief Minister, Treasury
and Economic Development Directorate (CMTEDD) on 23 January 2026, in which
you sought access to information under the Freedom of Information Act 2016
(the Act).

Specifically, you are seeking as follows:

“ I request access to the following documents:

1. All emails from Emma Davidson <[1][email address]> on the
topic of an email from a concerned Canberran about the Chief Minister,
sent between 12 Feb 2024 and 28 February 2024, inclusive.

2. All replies to the emails referred to in point 1.

3. Any and all subsequent replies to the emails from point 1 and 2 (i.e.
the full email chain or thread).

To help clarify the topic concerned: the emails would have been sent
regarding a written complaint received from a member of the public
regarding the conduct of the then Chief Minister. I request that the
documents be provided electronically, as electronically searchable email
documents in the .eml format.”

On 28 January 2026 you were contacted by CMTEDD under section 31 of the
Act find out more information on what you were requesting as your request
was not valid under section 30 of the Act as your requested ssearch did
not contain enough detail to identify what information you requested.You
were asked to provide more information on your request.

On 29 January 2026, you repled as follows: “My apologies, I should have
been clearer that yes, I am referring to Emma Davidson, former Greens
Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

I have provided a narrow range of dates, and the specific email address to
use for the "From:" field, which should narrow the search substantially.

Regarding the topic of the emails, as I stated in my request, they would
have been from Ms Davidson regarding a complaint made by a member of the
public regarding the conduct of the then Chief Minister. I can't imagine
there would be many such complaints, and even fewer Chief Ministers. There
is an upper limit on how many emails Ms Davidson could possibly have
written on any given day, even with the substantial workload of a Member
of the ACT Legislative Assembly. Unless Ms Davidson was in the habit of
being particularly obtuse with her email Subjects and the body of her
emails, I would imagine it should become obvious fairly quickly if any
given email was about this complaint.

I am not aware of who Ms Davidson emailed on this topic, which is part of
why I am making this FOI request. I do not currently have a copy of any of
the emails in question.

I trust this is sufficient information for you to locate the documents I
seek. I will also share further contact information via the email address
you have provided so that we can discuss the scope via phonecall [sic], if
necessary.“

CMTEDD has received your request on 29 January 2026, when you provided the
above additional scoping information under section 31(3) of the Act, your
request became valid.

Your revised scope is as follows:

“ I request access to the following documents:

1. All emails from Emma Davidson <[2][email address]> on the
topic of an email from a concerned Canberran about the Chief Minister,
sent between 12 Feb 2024 and 28 February 2024, inclusive.

2. All replies to the emails referred to in point 1.

3. Any and all subsequent replies to the emails from point 1 and 2 (i.e.
the full email chain or thread).

To help clarify the topic concerned: the emails would have been sent
regarding a written complaint received from a member of the public
regarding the conduct of the then Chief Minister. I request that the
documents be provided electronically, as electronically searchable email
documents in the .eml format.”

I am referring to Emma Davidson, former Greens Member of the ACT
Legislative Assembly.

I have provided a narrow range of dates, and the specific email address to
use for the "From:" field, which should narrow the search substantially.

Regarding the topic of the emails, as I stated in my request, they would
have been from Ms Davidson regarding a complaint made by a member of the
public regarding the conduct of the then Chief Minister. I can't imagine
there would be many such complaints, and even fewer Chief Ministers. There
is an upper limit on how many emails Ms Davidson could possibly have
written on any given day, even with the substantial workload of a Member
of the ACT Legislative Assembly. Unless Ms Davidson was in the habit of
being particularly obtuse with her email Subjects and the body of her
emails, I would imagine it should become obvious fairly quickly if any
given email was about this complaint.

I am not aware of who Ms Davidson emailed on this topic, which is part of
why I am making this FOI request. I do not currently have a copy of any of
the emails in question.”

On 29 January 2026 you were sent an email that included the following:
“Thank you for your reply. Information you requested information may
possibly not be held by our Directorate. Accordingly we are making
enquiries where the management of your request best fits.”.

Section 102 of the Act states: “ Transfer of Ministerial responsibility -
A Minister in possession of government information relating to an agency
the Minister is responsible for must, when no longer responsible for the
agency, give the information to the agency.” We are continuing to search
for records within your requested scope.Please note that we are making
enquiries with other Directorates that may hold information within scope
of your request and you request may be transferred to another directorate.

Please note on 24 May 2023, an amendment to the Act was made effective
which applies to access applications received on 24 May 2023 and onwards.
In accordance with section 40 of the Act, we are required to provide you
with a decision on access to the documents within the terms of your
request within 30 working days of receipt. Therefore, the due date for a
decision on your application is 13 March 2026.

Third Party Consultation

In processing your application, consultation with relevant third parties
may be required. If this is the case, you will be notified to this effect
and advised of a revised decision due date in respect of your application.
In terms of the Act, if third party consultation is required, the due date
may be extended by 15 working days.

Charges

Please be aware that processing charges may be payable in relation to your
request. Should you be liable to pay a processing charge, you will be
notified in writing of the preliminary assessment and given an opportunity
to make an application that the charge should be remitted in whole or in
part.  This may affect the time within which your application is
processed.

Open Access Information

The FOI Act requires that details regarding your request such as your
application, decision notices, and information released to you, be
recorded in the agency disclosure log and be made publicly available no
earlier than three working days after a decision on access has been given
to you. Please be aware that while no personal information will be
included in the published information all other information will be
published on [3]https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/functions/....

Should you have any queries in relation to your request please contact the
CMTEDD FOI Team by telephone on 02 6207 7754 or email
[4][email address].

Kind regards

CMTEDD FOI Team

Phone: 02 6207 7754 |[5][email address]

Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate | ACT
Government

220 London Circuit, Canberra City | GPO Box 158 Canberra ACT 2601 |
[6]www.act.gov.au

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References

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OFFICIAL: Sensitive - Personal Privacy

Good afternoon

Please see the attached decision letter relating to your recent Freedom of
Information request.

Regards

Freedom of Information Coordinator

CMTEDD FOI Team

Phone: 02 6207 7754 |[1][email address]

Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate | ACT
Government

220 London Circuit, Canberra City | GPO Box 158 Canberra ACT 2601 |
[2]www.act.gov.au

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. file:///tmp/www.act.gov.au