Australian Securities
and Investments Commission
Office address (inc courier deliveries):
Level 7, 120 Collins Street,
Melbourne VIC 3000
Mail address for Melbourne office:
GPO Box 9827,
Brisbane QLD 4001
28 August 2020
Tel: +61 1300 935 075
Fax: +61 1300 729 000
Phillip Sweeney
www.asic.gov.au
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Sweeney,
Notice of Freedom of Information Decision – Ref 165-2020
I refer to your email received by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
(
ASIC) on 17 August 2020 in which you seek access to the following under the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act):
Australian citizens would expect an agency tasked with enforcing the law would have a well-
stocked law library.
All libraries have a catalogue to record what books are held by the library and where they can be
located by Dewey Decimal Classification Number (or similar classification).
The FOI Act defines a document as: any paper or other material on which there is writing or a
mark, figure or symbol. electronically stored information. a map, a plan, a drawing or a photograph.
The documents I seek are copies of a 'document', including electronically stored information, that
would list all the books or other documents that could be classified as 'legal authorities' in ASIC's
law library where the main title commences with the letters "Th"
Different ASIC offices may have their own law libraries.
If so, I seek a copy of the catalogue document for each ASIC office.
The 30 day statutory time period for processing your request commenced on the day after
the day on which your request was received (s 15(5) of the FOI Act). The due date to issue a
decision on your request is therefore 16 September 2020.
Authority to make decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
Decision I have conducted searches of ASIC’s records. While no existing documents within the scope
of your request were identified, ASIC’s Systems Librarian has exported a list of titles from
ASIC’s catalogue which begin with ‘Th’ that could be classified as ‘legal authorities’ and
compiled this list into a report for the purposes of satisfying your request.
The following steps were taken to search for and produce the document:
• Searches were conducted by ASIC’s Systems Librarian;
• Searches were conducted on 19 August 2020, totalling 30 minutes;
2
• Location searched was the Library Management System; and
• The report was extracted from the Library Management System and exported into an
Excel spreadsheet with Catalogue Title, Author, Item type and Library location.
I am informed that ASIC only has physical collections in Sydney and Melbourne.
This document has been produced in accordance with s 17 of the FOI Act, which requires an
agency to produce a written document of information if the requested information is stored
electronically and not in a discrete written form. The obligation to produce a written
document arises if the agency could produce a written document using a computer or other
equipment that is ordinarily available to the agency for retrieving or collating stored
information, and producing a written document would not substantially and unreasonably
divert the resources of the agency from its other operations.
The FOI Guidelines provide, as examples, a written compilation of information held across
various agency databases, the production of a statistical report from an agency’s dataset,1 or
information held in an agency computer system rather than in discrete form.2
My decision is to grant access in full to this document. This document is
attached.
In relation to your request for ‘legal authorities’, I have consulted with ASIC’s Systems
Librarian. I am informed that the term ‘legal authorities’ has been interpreted as the
following:
A “legal authority” is any published material that is a source of law such as Acts, Regulations,
Legislative instruments etc as well as Law Reports (authorised that are accepted in court).
Secondary resources such as books, loose-leaf services and journals are not deemed as a “legal
authority”.
I note that you have previously requested a copy of the title page of ‘Thomas on Powers’ by
Geraint Thomas, published by Oxford University Press (reference 161-2020). I have been
informed by the Systems Librarian that ASIC does not hold this title.
Your review rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information
Commissioner review of the decision.
Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to ASIC for an internal review of my
decision by another ASIC officer. The internal review application must be made within 30 days
of the date of this letter. This request should be addressed to the Senior Manager, Freedom
of Information, by email t
o xxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx Information Commissioner review Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian 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:
1 FOI Guidelines [3.204]
2 FOI Guidelines [2.33]
3
online:
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR_10
email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
More information about Information Commissioner review is available on the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner website. Go to
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-
information/reviews-and-complaints/information-commissioner-review/.
FOI Complaints
You may lodge a complaint with the Australian Information Commissioner in relation to the
conduct of ASIC in the handling of this request. A complaint to the Information
Commissioner must be made in writing. Complaints can be lodged in one of the following
ways:
online
:https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICCA_1
email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney 2001
More information about complaints is available on the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-
complaints/make-an-foi-complaint/.
If you are not sure whether to lodge an Information Commissioner review or an Information
Commissioner complaint, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has more
information at:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/
Questions about this decision
If you wish to discuss this decision, I can be contacted by phone or email as below.
Yours sincerely
Haydar Tuncer
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Phone: 03 9280 4416
Email: xxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
