If not delivered return to PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
8 October 2018
Our reference: LEX 39886
Mr Keith Owen
Only by email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx Dear Mr Owen
Your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request
I refer to your request, dated 1 October 2018 and received by the Department of Human
Services (
department) on the same date for access under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (
FOI Act), made in the following terms:
I would like to access any documents that fit this criteria:
Internal Procedure Documents
Policy Documents
relating to the Department of Human Services, Child Support Program,
communicating with clients who have advised that they are:
Homeless
Do not have a physical address to send correspondence physically,
And who may have nominated an email address as an address for correspondence.
Consultation – your request gives rise to practical refusal reasons
I am consulting with you because practical refusal reasons exist in relation to your request.
Specifically, your request does not provide such information as is reasonably necessary to
enable a responsible officer to identify the documents you seek.
Additionally, to the extent that the department can identify the documents you may seek
access to, processing your request would likely result in a substantial and unreasonable
diversion of the resources of the department.
I am consulting with you to ask that you revise your request to:
provide more specific information about the documents you are requesting in order
for me to reasonably be able to identify the documents; and
reduce the time that would be required to locate documents that may fall within the
scope of your request.
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If you do not revise your request in order to resolve the issues raised in this letter, I will have
to refuse your request on the basis that one or more practical refusal reasons still exist.
For a more detailed explanation of what this means please refer to
Attachment A.
How to send us a 'revised request'
I am the contact officer for your request. During the consultation period you are welcome to
ask for my help in revising your request. You can contact me:
in writing to the address at the top of this letter; or
via email t
o xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Note: When you contact us please quote the reference number
LEX 39886.
How to send us a revised request
Within 14 days after the day you receive this notice (
consultation period), you must do one
of the following, in writing:
withdraw the request
make a revised request, or
tell us that you do not want to revise your request.
Your written response must be received by the department before the consultation period
ends on
22 October 2018.
The consultation period is not included in the initial 30 day processing period for your
request.
Further assistance
If you have any FOI questions please email
xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
You may find the following general information of assistance:
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/help-in-an-emergency/003-
06010080-01.html; and
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/help-in-an-emergency/003-
06010080-03.html.
Yours sincerely
Doug
Authorised FOI Decision Maker
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
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Department of Human Services
If not delivered return to PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
Attachment A
Practical refusal reasons
Your request:
does not provide such information as is reasonably necessary to enable the
department to identify the documents that you are requesting; and
to the extent that documents can be identified, processing your request would result
in a substantial and unreasonable diversion of the resources of the department.
What I took into account Your request does not provide sufficient information to identify the documents you seek
Paragraph 3.54 of the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
section 93A of the FOI Act (
Guidelines) provides:
If in doubt, the agency or minister should consult the applicant to discuss exactly what
documents are being requested.
Because I cannot be certain what is and what is not intended to be captured by your request,
I am consulting with you to determine precisely what documents you are requesting.
You state that you seek access to any documents ‘that fit’ the listed criteria and you have
provided two types of documents, being ‘internal procedure documents’ and ‘policy
documents’. However, it is not clear whether the list you have provided is exhaustive or
whether it is intended to include examples of the types of documents that you seek, in
addition to ‘any’ other documents.
Furthermore, the terms ‘internal procedure documents’ and ‘policy documents’ are
ambiguous and could apply to a broad range of material, such as informal email
correspondence, or only the final formal versions of such material.
Also, the term ‘relating to’ does not identify whether the documents requested are to be
limited to the Child Support programme, or whether it includes documents that may apply
generally to the department, and any or all of its programmes. It is also not clear whether the
documents that you seek must fit within all three criteria listed in the second part of your
request; that is, ‘homeless’, ‘do not have a physical address to send correspondence
physically’
and ‘who may have nominated an email address as an address for
correspondence’, or whether documents that fit one or more description are to be included.
Accordingly, you have not provided sufficient information to enable a department officer to
identify the documents you seek.
Processing your request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the
department from its other operations
To the extent that some of the documents you are seeking could be identified, processing
your request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the department
from its other operations.
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This is because terms such as ‘any documents’ relating to a subject do not limit the searches
that the department must undertake and could mean that, if your request is intended to cover
more than the Child Support programme, the department would be required to conduct
searches across a number of branches and systems to identify documents within scope.
The department would then need to review all of the documents retrieved, consult with the
relevant departmental officers, as well as any third parties, review the documents and make
redactions (if required).
Such an exercise would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the
department from delivering other services to the public.
Assistance to revise your request
Departmental staff refer to information on the department’s Operational Blueprint for
procedural instruction and guidance in the course of delivering social security payments
generally, and administering Child Support as is the department’s ambit. As such, it may be
that you mean to seek access to specific Operational Blueprint files, a range of which the
department has made publicly accessible via the following link:
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/SiteMap/siteMap.html.
As provided above under the ‘Further assistance’ heading you may find the following
Operational Blueprint files of assistance:
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/help-in-an-emergency/003-
06010080-01.html; and
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/help-in-an-emergency/003-
06010080-03.html.
Alternatively, if the above publicly available documents do not contain the information you
seek, you may wish to consider revising your request to provide clarification of the
documents that you are requesting. Please note that if you choose to revise your request,
one or more practical refusal reasons may still exist in relation to any revised request.
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Section 24(1) of the FOI Act provides that an agency may refuse to give access to
documents in accordance with an FOI request if:
a practical refusal reason exists in relation to the request; and
following a request consultation process under section 24AB of the FOI Act, the
agency is satisfied that the practical refusal reason still exists.
Section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation
to an FOI request if the work involved in processing the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the department from its other operations.
Section 24AA(1)(b) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to
a request for a document if the request does not satisfy the requirement in section 15(2)(b) of
the FOI Act.
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Department of Human Services
Section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act sets out certain factors which the department must consider
when determining whether providing access in relation to a request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the department's resources. The department must specifically have
regard to the resources that would have to be used for:
identifying, locating or collating the documents within the department's filing system;
deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to which the request
relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of such a document, including resources
that would have to be used for examining the document or consulting in relation to the
request;
making a copy, or an edited copy, of the document, and
notifying any interim or final decision on the request.
Section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act provides that a request must provide such information as is
reasonably necessary to enable the agency to identify the documents that are being
requested.
Section 24AB(6) says that the applicant must, before the end of the consultation period, do
one of the following, by written notice to the agency or Minister:
withdraw the request,
make a revised request, or
indicate that the applicant does not wish to revise the request.
at the end of the consultation period if:
the applicant does not consult the contact person during the consultation period in
accordance with the notice, or
the applicant does not do one of the things mentioned in subsection (6) before the
end of the consultation period.
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Department of Human Services
