Reasons for decision
Material taken into account
In making my decision, I have had regard to the fol owing:
• your Freedom of Information request dated 31 July 2017
• the documents at issue
• the FOI Act, and
• 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).
Identification of documents
To locate documents within the scope of your request, the OAIC ran reports in Resolve (the
OAIC’s case management system) to identify:
• matters where a s 44 workflow had been initiated, and
• any documents containing ‘s 44’ in the title.
We then cross-referenced the two reports, to compile a list of the possible matters where a
s 44 notice was issued.
Each matter was then manual y checked for a s 44 notice being issued. Not all s 44 workflows
initiated resulted in a notice being issued. For example, in some cases documents were
provided prior to a notice being issued and therefore a notice was not required.
Resolve, and the s 44 workflow, was introduced in June 2012. To process this request, a
search was conducted of all retained migrated records from the former case management
system. The documents listed in the schedule attached to this decision includes records
identified during this search.
I therefore consider the OAIC has taken al reasonable steps to locate documents within the
scope of your request.
I have decided to give you access to al documents where there is evidence a s 44 notice was
issued.
Material irrelevant to the request (s 22)
I have decided to release all documents to you, removing material irrelevant to your request
under s 22 of the FOI Act.
Section 22 provides as follows:
Access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted
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Scope
(1) This section applies if:
(a) an agency or Minister decides:
(i) to refuse to give access to an exempt document; or
(ii) that to give access to a document would disclose information that would
reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request for access; and
(b) it is possible for the agency or Minister to prepare a copy (an
edited copy) of the
document, modified by deletions, ensuring that:
(i) access to the edited copy would be required to be given under section 11A (access
to documents on request); and
(ii) the edited copy would not disclose any information that would reasonably be
regarded as irrelevant to the request; and
(c) it is reasonably practicable for the agency or Minister to prepare the edited copy,
having regard to:
(i) the nature and extent of the modification; and
(ii) the resources available to modify the document; and
(d) it is not apparent (from the request or from consultation with the applicant) that the
applicant would decline access to the edited copy.
In your request, you removed from scope the ‘names or reference numbers of the case
involved, the applicant, the respondent, or any information which would be personal
information’.
I have prepared an edited copy of the documents. The information that has been removed
from the documents:
• is material that is personal information that could identify the applicant, and
• information that may identify the respondent in each matter.
As such I have decided that this material is irrelevant to your request.
Al other material has been released to you and no exemptions have been applied.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish documents released through an FOI
request on our website within 10 days of release, except in certain circumstances including
when the documents contain personal or business information that it would be unreasonable
to publish.
The documents being released to you do not contain any personal or business information
that it would be unreasonable to publish. As a result, they wil be published on our disclosure
log shortly.
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Yours sincerely
Caren Whip
Director
Dispute Resolution Branch
25 August 2017
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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 will usually not be in the interests of the
administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a 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 wil 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.
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