Our reference: FFOIREQ20/00167
Your Freedom of Information request FOIREQ20/00167
Dear Julie
I refer to your request for access to documents made under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) on 3 September 2020.
In your request you seek access to the following:
I wish to obtain access to official information held by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. The official information sought is
not available in discrete form, in the written documents of the agency, therefore I request the
agency to produce a written document containing the information in discrete form by use of
computer to retrieve and collate the stored official information sought.
I request access to such a compiled document that provides the fol owing information in the
layout requested:
Table One
............................................................................FY19/20.......FY18/19
* FOI section 15AB Applications Received
* FOI section 15AB Applications Approved
(any application not refused)
* FOI section 15AB Applications Refused
(any application refused/rejected)
* FOI section 15AB Applications Withdrawn
(any application withdrawn by agency)
Table Two (FY19/20 only)
Column One - List of all agencies, sorted by number of Section 15AB applications received from
(descending order)
Column Two - Section 15AB Applications Received
Column Three - Section 15AB Applications Approved (any application not refused)
Column Four - Section 15AB Applications Refused (any application refused/rejected)
Column Five - Section 15AB Applications Withdrawn (any application withdrawn by agency)
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
1300 363 992
T +61 2 9284 9749
GPO Box 5218
www.oaic.gov.au
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
F +61 2 9284 9666
Sydney NSW 2001
ABN 85 249 230 937

Relevant documents
I have identified two documents within the scope of your request based on the advice of the
line area that is responsible for the processing of applications under s 15AB of the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982. These documents were created under s 17 of the FOI Act using data
available on the OAIC’s case management system, Resolve.
Decision to grant access
I have decided to grant you access to the two documents in full.
A schedule describing the documents and the access decision I have made is at Appendix A
to this decision.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish documents released to members of the
public online within 10 days of release, except if they contain personal or business information
that it would be unreasonable to publish.
The documents I have decided to release to you do not contain business or personal
information that it would be unreasonable to publish. As a result, they wil be published on our
disclosure log shortly after being released to you.
Your review rights are set out below.
Yours sincerely
Dr Rachel Ranjan
Senior Lawyer
Legal Services
6 October 2020
If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the FOI Act.
An internal review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of the OAIC who
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was not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you wish to apply for an
internal review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There is no application fee for
internal review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the attention of
the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that my decision should be
reviewed.
Further Review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner and the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision (IC review). If
you wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. Your application
must provide an address (which can be an email address or fax number) that we can send
notices to, and include a copy of this letter. A request for IC review can be made in relation to
my decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it will usually not be in the interests of the
administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal review
decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the OAIC. For this
reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, and the Information
Commissioner is satisfied that in the interests of administration of the Act it is desirable that
my decision be considered by the AAT, the Information Commissioner may decide not to
undertake an IC review.
Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the AAT for review of an FOI
decision, you must first have applied for IC review.
Applications for internal reviews can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can submit your application by email t
o xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on
02 9284 9666.
Applications for IC review can be submitted online at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR_10
Alternatively, you can submit your application to:
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Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Or by email t
o xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on 02 9284 9666.
Accessing your information
If you would like access to the information that we hold about you, please contact
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on th
e Access our information page on our
website.
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Document Outline