16 October 2018
Mario
Via email
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Our Ref: 1819/31.02
Dear Mario
Request for Information
I am writing in relation to your email to
nbn’s FOI Officer via RightToKnow (RTK) on 4 October 2018 seeking:
“
documents that show nbnCo's previously published 'ready-for-service' dates, 'cease-sale' dates and
'planned delivery technology' roll-outs for brownfield premises covering … Turrella (postcode 2205).”
The
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act) provides that members of the public have a general right of
access to specific documents, subject to certain exemptions. Und
er section 15(2) of the FOI Act, a valid FOI
request must provide such information concerning the requested documents as is reasonably necessary to enable
nbn to identify them, among other things.
Scope of Request and Notice
Your request seeks the documents described above, within various date ranges, for the whole suburb of Turella.
You have asked, in the event it is difficult to find the documents for the whole suburb, that your request be
limited to Walker Street. However, this geographical area could still encompass a very broad range of documents.
As currently drafted, the terms of your request are not sufficiently clear and the particular documents that fall
within the parameters of the request are not reasonably identifiable. Accordingly, your FOI request in its current
form is invalid.
Until you clarify the terms of your request,
nbn will not formally acknowledge your request, and the statutory
period for completing this request will not commence. In that regard, please let me know if there is a specific
document, or set of documents, which you are seeking. It may be useful to consider whether you might be willing
to limit your request to one particular address.
In light of the time likely to be required to process this request in its current form, I am also of the opinion that it
may be an unreasonable diversion of
nbn’s resources, under
sections 24 and
24AA of the FOI Act. nbn’s Commercial Activities Carve-out
I also refer you to
nbn’s commercial activities carve-out (
CAC) from the application of the FOI Act, and sectio
n
7(3A) an
d Part II of Schedule 2 of the FOI Act. Please be aware that documents that are in relation to
nbn’s
“commercial activities” are not subject to the operation of the FOI Act and would be exempt from release. The
following link summarises and provides
general background information concerning
nbn’s CAC. That background
document references two reviews by the Australian Information Commissioner that considered
nbn’s CAC: the
Internode Decision (in January 2012) and th
e Battersby Decision (in July 2013). While I am not making a formal
decision and have not reviewed any documents, I note that there is a possibility that documents falling within the
terms of your request may be subject to the CAC, among other exemptions from release.
FOI Processing Period and Charges
The statutory period for processing an FOI application is 30 days, subject to any suspension of the processing
period or extension of the time for deciding the application. Please also note that
nbn may impose processing
charges in relation to FOI requests. You will be advised of any charges in relation to your request.
For your reference, processing charges for FOI applications are set by regulation and may be found at
nbn’s
website, in particular,
its FOI page. The following hyperlink outlines
nbn’s approach to processing charges:
Submission to the Office of the Australian Information Commission
er Charges Review. In particular,
nbn supports
and will generally apply Recommendation 24 in th
e Hawke Review into FOI Legislation, (the Hawke Review) as a
benchmark in reviewing FOI applications. For your reference, Recommendation 24 suggests a 40-hour ceiling for
all FOI processing charges. More information about charges under the FOI Act is availab
le in Fact Sheet 7 on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (
OAIC) website and in part 4 of the OAI
C FOI Guidelines.
Disclosure Log
In accordance with the FOI Act,
nbn is required to publish documents provided to FOI applicants within 10
working days after release. The information you seek may be published in full (as released to you) or with some
additional redactions as per section 11C of the FOI Act. For further information and other details, please visit our
Disclosure Log on
nbn’s website.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or if you would like to discuss your request.
Yours sincerely
Kate Friedrich
Senior Legal Counsel
FOI Privacy & Knowledge Management