Dear Alby

 

I refer to your correspondence of 28 August 2020 and 29 August 2020 (both attached) received by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the department).

 

In your request of 28 August you asked for monthly data from the Incubator Support Initiative. Your request of 29 August was for certain documents relating to a grant to the Hunter Business Centre under the Incubator Support Programme. The subject matter of both of these requests is substantially the same as one of your other FOI requests, ref 66872. In that request, you also asked for a spreadsheet to be created containing data relating to the Incubator Support Initiative.

 

Under section 24 of the FOI Act, the department may treat 2 or more requests as a single request where the department is satisfied that:

(a) the requests relate to the same document; or

(b) the requests relate to the documents, the subject matter of which is substantially the same.

 

The department is currently considering whether to combine your two most recent requests with your request 66872. If the department proceeds with this, it is quite possible that a practical refusal reason will exist on the basis that the work involved would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the department from its other operations. We note you have currently submitted four FOI requests to the department. This is four of 22 requests received by the department since 25 June 2020 all regarding similar subject matter. This has resulted in the relevant line area being diverted from their standard operations, and the department having limited capacity to handle incoming FOI requests.

 

When a practical refusal reason exists, the department will enter into a request consultation process with you under s24AB of the FOI Act. During this process, the freedom of information team will look to assist you to make your request more manageable so that it can be processed. If we are unable to refine the request, it may be refused. Should this occur, you will be issued a refund for any payment made for 66872.

 

Before we make a decision on whether to combine the requests, we would like to invite you to consider whether you would prefer to withdraw your two most recent requests and resubmit them once one of your current requests has been completed, being when you receive a Notice of Decision. If you do not wish to withdraw this FOI request, it is likely that the department will combine these requests with your other request, 66872.

 

If any of your requests are refused, we note that it is always of course open to you to resubmit a request in another, more manageable, form.

 

I would appreciate your response by Friday 4 September 2020 on whether you would prefer to withdraw your two most recent requests or whether you are happy for the department to combine the requests.

 

We would be happy to discuss this further with you.

 

Regards

 

FOI Team

Legal, Audit and Assurance | Corporate & Digital

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

 

Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources | www.industry.gov.au

 

Supporting economic growth and job creation for all Australians

 

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