the FOI Act, in particular ss 4 and 24A
the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of the
FOI Act to which regard must be had in performing a function or exercising a power
under the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines), in particular paragraphs [3.80] — [3.84].
Documents do not exist (s 24A)
Section 24A of the FOI Act relevantly provides:
Document lost or non-existent
(1)
An agency or Minister may refuse a request for access to a document if:
(a)
al reasonable steps have been taken to find the document; and
(b)
the agency or Minister is satisfied that the document:
(i)
is in the agency’s or Minister’s possession but cannot be found; or
(i )
does not exist.
The FOI Guidelines explain:
The Act is silent on what constitutes ‘al reasonable steps’. Agencies should undertake a reasonable
search on a flexible and common sense interpretation of the terms of the request.
1
To locate documents I asked all relevant staff, including:
the Assistant Commissioner, Dispute Resolution Branch
the former Director, Dispute Resolution Branch
the Assistant Director, Dispute Resolution Branch (with responsibility for reporting and
statistics) and
the Records Manager
whether they held any documents relevant to the request. Searches were also undertaken of
the OAIC’s electronic records management system TRIM, dating to the establishment of the
OAIC on 1 November 2010. No documents fal ing within the scope of your request were
identified.
I am satisfied that all relevant searches have been undertaken to locate the documents you
requested and that no documents are in the possession of the OAIC.
As a result, I am refusing your request for access to documents under s 24A of the FOI Act.
Satisfaction surveys
From at least 2004-05, it was the practice of the then Office of the Privacy Commissioner
(OPC) to survey members of the public who had lodged a privacy complaint on completion of
their matter.
The OPC also conducted a survey of 100 complainants and 41 organisations in February and
March 2005. A report of the survey was published in the 2004-05 Annual Report (at Appendix
6). In May and June 2008, another complainant survey was conducted (involving 100
individual complainants).
1
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
s 93A of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 [3.81].
www.oaic.gov.au |
2
In 2014, the OAIC started work developing a customer satisfaction ‘smartform’ for privacy
complaints. However in the 2014-15 budget, the government announced an intention to
disband the OAIC and work on this project ceased.
In the 2016-17 budget, the government announced it would not go ahead with the
disbandment of the OAIC. Consequently, the office is reconsidering whether to undertake a
customer satisfaction survey.
Yours sincerely
Raewyn Harlock
Assistant Director
Dispute Resolution Branch
6 July 2017
www.oaic.gov.au |
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If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the FOI Act.
An internal review wil be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of the OAIC who
was not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you wish to apply for an
internal review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There is no application fee for
internal review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the attention of
the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that my decision should be
reviewed.
Further Review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner and the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision (IC review). If you
wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within 60 days. Your application must
provide an address (which can be an email address or fax number) that we can send notices
to, and include a copy of this letter. A request for IC review can be made in relation to my
decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it wil usual y not be in the interests of the
administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal review
decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the OAIC. For this
reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, it is likely that the Information
Commissioner will decide (under s 54W(b) of the FOI Act) not to undertake an IC review on
the basis that it is desirable that my decision be considered by the AAT.
Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the AAT for review of an FOI
decision, you must first have applied for IC review.
Applications for internal review or IC review can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you may submit your application by email to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on
02 9284 9666.
www.oaic.gov.au |
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