3 December 2018
Dr Anthea Vogl
BY EMAIL: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
xxxxxx.xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:
FA 18/05/00515
File Number:
ADF2018/53059
Dear Dr Vogl
Freedom of Information (FOI) request - Access Decision
On 2 May 2018, the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) received a request for access
to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request for access under the
FOI Act.
1
Scope of request
You have requested access to the following documents:
1. All submissions received in response to the Community Refugee Sponsorship
Discussion Paper (Department of Immigration and Border Protection, June 2015)
['the 2015 Discussion Paper'].
2. The total number of submissions received in response to the 2015 Discussion
Paper and the authoring organisation or person.
3. Any information, records, paper documents, electronic records, or the contents
of any records, paper documents or electronic records (including copies of such
records and documents), held or accessible by the Department of Home Affairs
['the Department'] in relation to:
a. Outlining, documenting or summarising submissions received in response to the
2015 Discussion Paper.
b. Appraising or assessing the submissions received in response to the 2015
Discussion Paper.
c. Reporting on the Department's response to submissions received in response to
www.homeaffairs.gov.au
the 2015 Discussion Paper; including but not limited to documents addressing
which submissions and/or recommendations were accepted, rejected or considered
to be outside the terms of the discussion paper.
2
Authority to make decision
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions in respect of
requests to access documents or to amend or annotate records.
3
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the documents relevant to the request
• the FOI Act
• Guidelines published by the Office of the Information Commissioner under section 93A
of the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
• advice from Departmental officers with responsibility for matters relating to the
documents to which you sought access.
4
Documents in scope of request
The Department has identified 18 documents as falling within the scope of your request.
These documents were in the possession of the Department on 2 May 2018 when your
request was received.
Attachment A is a schedule which describes the relevant documents and sets out my
decision in relation to each of them.
5
Decision
The decision in relation to the documents in the possession of the Department which fall
within the scope of your request is as follows:
• Release two documents in part with deletions
• Exempt 16 documents in full from disclosure
6
Reasons for Decision
Detailed reasons for my decision are set out below.
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that the exemption provision applies to that
information are set out below.
6.1 Section 47F of the FOI Act – Personal Privacy
Section 47F of the FOI Act provides that a document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure
under the FOI Act would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information of
any person. ‘Personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified
individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion
is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not
(see s 4 of the FOI Act and s 6 of the
Privacy Act 1988).
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I consider that disclosure of the information marked 's47F' in the documents would disclose
personal information relating to third parties. The information within the documents would
reasonably identify a person, either through names, positions or descriptions of their role
or employment circumstance.
The FOI Act states that, when deciding whether the disclosure of the personal information
would be ‘unreasonable’, I must have regard to four factors set out in s.47F(2) of the
FOI Act. I have therefore considered each of these factors below:
•
the extent to which the information is well known;
•
whether the person to whom the information relates is known to be (or to have
been) associated with the matters dealt with in the document;
•
the availability of the information from publicly available resources;
•
any other matters that I consider relevant.
The information relating to the third parties is not well known and would only be known to
a limited group of people with a business need to know. As this information is only known
to a limited group of people, the individual(s) concerned is/are not generally known to be
associated with the matters discussed in the document. This information is not available
from publicly accessible sources.
I am satisfied that the disclosure of the information within the documents would involve an
unreasonable disclosure of personal information about a number of individuals.
I have decided that the information referred to above is conditionally exempt under section
47F of the FOI Act. Access to a conditionally exempt document must generally be given
unless it would be contrary to the public interest to do so. I have turned my mind to whether
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest, and have included my
reasoning in that regard below.
6.2 Section 47G of the FOI Act – Business Affairs
Section 47G(1)(a) of the FOI Act permits conditional exemption of documents containing
business information where disclosure of that information would, or could reasonably be
expected to, unreasonably affect the organisation adversely in respect of its lawful
business, commercial or financial affairs.
I have considered that the documents in scope for your request contain information
concerning the business, commercial or financial affairs of an organisation.
The information is in the nature of opinions and deliberations presented to the Department
by these organisations in relation to the
Community support programme for humanitarian
clients (2015). The opinions and deliberations were provided to the Department by the
organisations under the presumption that the information would remain in-confidence and
would not be made publically available.
In determining whether disclosure of the information within the documents would or could
reasonably be expected to adversely affect the lawful business, commercial or financial
affairs of an organisation, I have had regard to the following factors:
(a)
The extent to which the information is well known;
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(b)
Whether the organisation or undertaking is known to be associated with the
matters dealt with in the documents;
(c)
The availability of the information from publicly accessible sources; and
(d)
Any other matters that the Department considers relevant.
The information contained within these documents is not in the public domain, the
organisation concerned is not generally known to be associated with the matters referred
to in these documents, and the information is not available from publicly accessible
sources, such as the organisation's website. I am therefore satisfied that the disclosure of
the information would, or could reasonably be expected to, unreasonably affect that
organisation in respect of its lawful business, commercial or financial affairs.
I have decided that the documents referred to above are conditionally exempt under section
47G of the FOI Act. Access to a conditionally exempt document must generally be given
unless it would be contrary to the public interest to do so. I have turned my mind to whether
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest, and have included my
reasoning in that regard below.
6.3 The public interest – section 11A of the FOI Act
As I have decided that parts of the documents are conditionally exempt, I am now required
to consider whether access to the conditionally exempt information would be contrary to
the public interest (section 11A of the FOI Act).
A part of a document which is conditionally exempt must also meet the public interest test
in section 11A(5) before an exemption may be claimed in respect of that part.
In summary, the test is whether access to the conditionally exempt part of the document
would be, on balance, contrary to the public interest.
In applying this test, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act and the importance of the other
factors listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act, being whether access to the document would
do any of the following:
(a)
promote the objects of this Act (including all the matters set out in sections 3 and
3A);
(b)
inform debate on a matter of public importance;
(c)
promote effective oversight of public expenditure;
(d)
allow a person to access his or her own personal information.
Having regard to the above:
• I am satisfied that access to the documents would promote the objects of the
FOI Act.
• I consider that the subject matter of the documents does have the character
of public importance and that there may be broad public interest in the
documents.
• I consider that no insights into public expenditure will be provided through
examination of the documents.
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• I am satisfied that you do not require access to the documents in order to
access your own personal information.
Disclosure of the documents would not provide a person with sufficient information to
assess the rigour or efficiencies of internal decision making processes within the
Department, promote scrutiny of government decision making or reveal the reasoning for
a government decision. I consider these considerations as neutral.
I have also considered the following factors that weigh against the release of the
conditionally exempt information in the documents:
• Disclosure of the personal information which is conditionally exempt under
section 47F of the FOI Act could reasonably be expected to prejudice the
protection of those individuals' right to privacy.
• The Department is committed to complying with its obligations under the
Privacy Act 1988, which sets out standards and obligations that regulate how
the Department must handle and manage personal information. It is firmly in
the public interest that the Department uphold the rights of individuals to their
own privacy and meets its obligations under the Privacy Act. I consider that
this factor weighs heavily against disclosure of the personal information
contained within these documents.
• Disclosure of the parts of the documents that are conditionally exempt under
section 47G of the FOI Act could reasonably be expected to prejudice the
competitive commercial activities of third party organisations. I consider that
this factor weighs heavily against disclosure.
I have also had regard to section 11B(4) which sets out the factors which are irrelevant to
my decision, which are:
a) access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth
Government, or cause a loss of confidence in the Commonwealth Government;
b) access to the document could result in any person misinterpreting or
misunderstanding the document;
c) the author of the document was (or is) of high seniority in the agency to which the
request for access to the document was made;
d) access to the document could result in confusion or unnecessary debate.
I have not taken into account any of those factors in this decision.
Upon balancing all of the above relevant public interest considerations, I have concluded
that the disclosure of the conditionally exempt information in the documents is not in the
public interest and therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act.
7
Legislation
A copy of the FOI Act is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00251.
If you are unable to access the legislation through this website, please contact our office
for a copy.
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8
Your Review Rights
Internal Review
If you disagree with this decision, you have the right to apply for an internal review by the
Department of this decision. Any request for internal review must be provided to the
Department within 30 days of you being notified of the decision. Where possible please
attach reasons why you believe a review of the decision is necessary. The internal review
will be carried out by an officer other than the original decision maker and the Department
must make a review decision within 30 days.
Applications for review should be sent to:
By email to: xxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
OR
By mail to:
Freedom of Information Section
Department of Home Affairs
PO Box 25
BELCONNEN ACT 2617
Review by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
You may apply directly to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for
a review of this decision. You must apply in writing within 60 days of this notice. For further
information about review rights and how to submit a request for a review to the OAIC,
please see Fact Sheet 12 "Freedom of information – Your review rights", available online
at http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-reviews.
9
Making a Complaint
You may complain to the Australian Information Commissioner about action taken by the
Department in relation to your request.
Your enquiries to the Australian Information Commissioner can be directed to:
Phone 1300 363 992 (local call charge)
Email xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
There is no particular form required to make a complaint to the Australian Information
Commissioner. The request should be in writing and should set out the grounds on which
it is considered that the action taken in relation to the request should be investigated and
identify the Department of Home Affairs as the relevant agency.
10
Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Section
at xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx .
Authorised Decision Maker
Position number: 60008296
Department of Home Affairs
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