Telephone: (02) 9230 8567
FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT OF AUSTRALIA
DX 613 SYDNEY
Your Ref:
LEVEL 17
Our Ref:
LAW COURTS BUILDING
QUEENS SQUARE
SYDNEY NSW 2000
9 December 2019
Tesi (via Right to Know website)
By ema
il: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Tesi,
Request made under the Freedom of Information Act
I refer to your email of 21 November 2019, sent to the Customer Service mailbox of the
Federal Circuit Court of Australia (
Court) requesting information (
FOI request) under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act).
Specifically, you have made the following request:
I am seeking information in relation to the complaint referral process of the Federal Circuit
Court of Australia and the Jurisdiction of the AFP to accept any such referrals. Does the
Federal Circuit court refer ‘complaints’ from members of the public or is their a process
involving referrals to the AFP from the Court. If the answer is yes, in what lawful capacity
can they act?. The Courts independence from the Government does not make it Government
Entity, Agency or Commonwealth Place, how can the AFP have any involvement without
being in breach of their lawful jurisdiction?.
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions on behalf of the Court in
relation to requests made under the FOI Act.
Decision
The request you have made to the Court does not constitute a valid request under the FOI Act
because it does not seek access to a ‘document of an agency’ in accordance with the relevant
provisions of the FOI Act and it does not provide sufficient information to identify a
‘document’ in accordance with the requirements of the FOI Act.
In making my decision I have had regard to:
a. the terms of your requests;
b. the relevant provisions of the FOI Act; and
c. the FOI Guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(
FOI Guidelines).
I note that it is open to you to amend your request or to make a new request to the Court that
specifically requests access to a ‘document’ and provides sufficient information to identify
that ‘document’ in accordance with the requirements of the FOI Act.
For your information, I also note that general information regarding the Court’s handling of
complaints is contained in the Court’s complaints policy which can be found here:
http://www.federalcircuitcourt.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/fccweb/about/policies-and-
procedures/complaints. The Court does not have any policies or similar documents
concerning the referral of complaints from members of the public to the AFP.
Reasons for Decision
Relevantly to your request, section 11 of the FOI Act provides that:
(1) Subject to this Act, every person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access in
accordance with this Act to:
(a) a document of an agency, other than an exempt document;
Subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act stipulates that a document is a ‘document of an agency’ if:
(a)
the document is in the possession of the agency, whether created in the agency or
received in the agency.
The FOI Guidelines elaborate on the above legislative provisions by explaining, at paragraph
2.33, that the “
right of access under the FOI Act is to existing documents, rather than to
information”. The FOI Guidelines further explain that the FOI Act does not require an
agency to create a new document in order to provide information that might be sought in a
request; the document must exist at the time the FOI request was made.
In addition, subsection 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act relevantly provides that a request made under
the FOI Act must “
provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister, to identify it”.
Therefore, even if your FOI request had specifically asked for a ‘document’, you would need
to have provided sufficient information that would enable the document to be identified.
Given that your FOI request has not asked for access to a document and/or provided
sufficient information as would be reasonably necessary to identify a document, I have
determined that your FOI request is not a valid request made pursuant to the FOI Act.
Charges
You have not been charged for the processing of your request.
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Your Review Rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or to the
Information Commissioner for review of those decisions. The decision maker encourages you
to seek internal review as a first step as it may provide a more rapid resolution of your
concerns.
Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the Federal Circuit Court for an
internal review of this decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days
of the date of this letter.
Where possible, please attach reasons why you believe review of the decision is necessary.
The internal review will be carried out by another officer within 30 days.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australia Information Commissioner
to review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be
made in writing within 60 days of the date of this letter and be lodged in one of the following
ways:
online:
https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/foi-review-/
ema
il: xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
post: GPO Box 2999, Canberra ACT 2601
in person: Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
More information about the Information Commissioner review is available on the Officer of
the Australian Information Commissioner website at:
www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-
information/foi-reviews. Yours sincerely
Claire Hammerton Cole
Registrar
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