Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
freedom of information requests.
I have decided to refuse your request under s 24A of the FOI Act on the basis that the
documents you seek do not exist.
Reasons for decision
In accordance with s 26 of the FOI Act, this is my statement of reasons.
Material taken into account
In making my decision, I had regard to the following:
your freedom of information request dated 8 August 2017
the FOI Act, in particular ss 4 and 24A, 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), in particular paragraphs [3.80] — [3.84].
Documents do not exist (s 24A)
The OAIC does not hold the documents you have requested. As a result I am refusing your
request for access under s 24A of the FOI Act.
Section 24A(1) 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)
all 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
(ii)
does not exist.
The FOI Guidelines explain:
The Act is silent on what constitutes ‘all reasonable steps’. Agencies should undertake a reasonable
search on a flexible and common sense interpretation of the terms of the request.1
On receiving your request this office undertook the following searches to find the documents
you requested:
Staff within the OAIC’s Dispute Resolution Branch were asked to search all relevant
records to determine whether the OAIC has documents containing the information
specified in your freedom of information request. They searched the OAIC’s case
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 |
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management system for documents created in response to an enquiry or privacy
complaint from an employee of the ACT government seeking advice, guidance, or
opinion about their private social media usage. They have advised that no such
documents exist.
Staff in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Human Resources team (who
provide human resources services to the OAIC) were asked to search for documents
containing the information specified in your freedom of information request. They
advised that they have not been approached by OAIC staff for information, advice,
guidance, or opinion on their social media use in a private capacity and therefore no
documents exist containing the information specified in your freedom of information
request.
I am satisfied that all reasonable steps have been undertaken to locate the documents you
have requested and that no such documents exist. I have therefore refused your request for
access to the documents you requested under s 24A of the FOI Act.
Yours sincerely
Gillian Cameron
Review and Investigation Officer
FOI Dispute Resolution
24 August 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 will 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, 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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