Australian Securities
and Investments Commission
Level 7, 120 Col ins Street,
Melbourne VIC 3000
GPO Box 9827,
Melbourne VIC 3001
Tel: +61 1300 935 075
Fax: +61 1300 729 000
www.asic.gov.au
Our reference:
34181/18
7 December 2018
Mr Phil ip Sweeney
By email –
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx Dear Mr Sweeney
Freedom of information request – Notice of practical refusal
We refer to your request for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (
FOI Act).
I am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to FOI requests.
Thank you for your email dated 26 November 2018 where you revised and further
clarified the scope of your request.
I am writing to tell you that I believe the work involved in processing your request in its
current form would substantial y and unreasonably divert ASIC’s resources from its
other operations due to its size and broad scope. This is a cal ed a ‘practical refusal
reason’ – section 24AA.
On this basis, I intend to refuse access to the documents you requested. However,
before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to further revise
your request. This is stil part of the ‘request consultation process’ as set out under
section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the
ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
You request access to the fol owing documents:
(i)
a copy of any document (including emails) sent by ASIC to APRA (or from
APRA to ASIC) where reference is made to PFS Nominees Pty Ltd or NULIS
Nominees (Australia) Ltd during the period 1 March 2009 to 31 December
2010; and
(i )
a copy of any document (including emails) sent by ASIC to PFS Nominees
Pty Ltd or NULIS Nominees (Australia) Ltd during the period 1 March 2009 to
31 December 2010.
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After receiving your email dated 26 November 2018, I conducted searches of our
databases for documents that might fall within the scope of your request. I decided
that a practical refusal reason exists because giving access to these documents
would substantial y and unreasonably divert ASIC’s resources due to its size and
broad scope.
Under section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act, ASIC must have regard to the resources that
would have to be used for:
• identifying, locating and col ating the documents within ASIC’s filing systems
• 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 with any persons or entities in relation to the request)
• making a copy or an edited copy of the document
• notifying any interim or final decision on the request
As noted above, I conducted searches of ASIC’s databases to gauge the approximate
number of documents that might fall within the scope of your request, which may
include emails, posted correspondence, reports, disclosure documents, and ASIC
forms. I also processed a sample of the requested documents to understand the time
and resources required to complete the ful request.
During the 22-month period that your request covers, the two companies, PFS
Nominees Pty Ltd and NULIS Nominees (Australia) Limited, held Australian financial
services licences. As you know, Australian companies and financial services licensee
have numerous obligations to notify or otherwise communicate with ASIC under the
laws we administer. For these reasons, we receive a substantial number of documents
from Australian companies and financial services licensees.
I decided that significant resources would be required to identify, locate and col ate
the documents within ASIC’s filing systems, which given the age of the requested
documents, would include both archived hard copy files as well as digital copies on
our older databases. It would also take considerable time to examine the documents,
consult with any persons or entities in relation to the request and then decide whether
to grant, refuse or defer access to a requested document, or grant access to edited
copies of the documents. Further ASIC resources would need to be used to make or
scan a copy or edited copy of the documents which have been archived.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to further revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean further narrowing the scope of the request to make it
more manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access.
For example, by providing more specific information about exactly what documents
you are interested in, our agency wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly
and avoid using excessive resources to process documents you are not interested.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the fol owing, in writing:
1. withdraw your request;
2. make a revised request; or
3
3. tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
Time frame for processing your request
The consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you receive this
notice.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from the contact person I have
listed below to revise your request. If you revise your request in a way that adequately
addresses the practical refusal grounds outlined above, we wil recommend
processing it.
Please note that the time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is
not taken into account for the purposes of the 30-day time limit for processing your
request.
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period or
you do not consult the contact person during this period, your request wil be taken to
have been withdrawn.
Contact officer
If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please contact:
name:
Ms Faranaz Alam
email:
xxxxxxx.xxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
phone:
(03) 9280 3319
Yours sincerely
David Asadi
Authorised decision-maker under subsection 23(1) FOI Act
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
