ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT 
     
BARTON 
    
 
 
 
FOI/2020/039/IR 
   FOI 
 
 
 
INTERNAL REVIEW DECISION AND REASONS  
UNDER SECTION 54 OF  
THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982 
 
REQUEST BY: 
Mr Andy Johnson 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DECISION BY:  John Reid 
First Assistant Secretary  
Government Division 
 
 
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx 
 
Dear Mr Johnson 
 
I refer to your request, dated 28 March 2020, seeking internal review of the decision 
(the primary decision) made on 23 March 2020 by Mr Peter Rush, Assistant Secretary, 
Parliamentary and Government Branch, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 
(the Department) in relation to your request, originally made on 6 February 2020 and revised 
on 20 March 2020, for access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in 
the following terms: 
 
Can you please provide access to the Gaetjens report itself. 
 
The primary decision found that the document you requested (the requested document) is 
exempt under sections 34(1) and 34(3) of the FOI Act (Cabinet documents).  
 
Under section 54(2) of the FOI Act, an applicant is entitled to apply for an internal review of a 
decision refusing to give access to a document in accordance with a request. 
 
In your request for internal review, you submitted that: 
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of the Prime Minister and 
Cabinet's handling of my FOI request 'Gaetjens report and all related internal DPMC 
emails about it since inception of McKenzie enquiry’. 
Postal Address:  PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600 
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849   Fax: +61 2 6271 5776   www.pmc.gov.au   ABN:  18 108 001 191 

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I realise the documents are labelled as cabinet in confidence, but the Australian public 
deserves to know given the grants are funded by taxpayer money. There is significant 
interest in the topic and it is simply not fair that the Prime Minister can hide corrupt 
behaviour behind obscure paragraphs. 
 
Authorised decision maker 
 
Section 54C(2) of the FOI Act provides that an agency must arrange for a person (other than 
the person who made the original decision) to review the decision.  
 
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the 
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the FOI Act. 
 
Internal review decision 
 
I have decided to affirm the primary decision. 
 
In reaching my decision I have had regard to: 
  the terms of your request; 
  the primary decision; 
  your request for internal review of 28 March 2020; 
  the requested document; 
  the FOI Act;  
  the ‘Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A 
of the Freedom of Information Act 1982’1 (the FOI Guidelines).  
 
Reasons  
 
I have carefully reviewed the requested document, as well as the exemptions claimed in the 
primary decision, and the reasons for those exemptions.  
 
Further, I have considered your submissions in support of your request for internal review, 
particularly your assertion that “there is significant interest in the topic”. In my view, there is 
a distinction between what is “of interest to the public” and the public interest in disclosure of 
a document2, and I am not persuaded that disclosure of the requested documents would be in 
the public interest.  
 
I am satisfied that the primary decision remains the correct and preferable decision, and I 
agree with the primary decision-maker’s findings and the reasons underpinning those 
findings. Accordingly, I adopt and affirm those findings and reasons as my own for the 
purposes of this internal review.  
 
Review rights 
 
Information about your rights of review under the FOI Act is available at 
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/.  
 
                                                           
1 FOI Guidelines combined November 2019 published on the web site of the Office of the Australian 
Information Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-guidelines/. 
 
2 This view was expressed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Thomas and Secretary, Department of 
Defence (Freedom of information) [2018] AATA 604 at 141. 
 
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Complaint rights  
 
You may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the Department’s actions 
in relation to this request. Making a complaint about the way the Department has handled an 
FOI request is a separate process to seeking review of the Department’s decision. Further 
information about how to make a complaint is available at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-
of-information/reviews-and-complaints/.  
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
 
John Reid 
First Assistant Secretary 
Government Division 
 
28 April 2020 
 
 
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