Our reference: FOIREQ20/00187
Julie
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Your Freedom of Information request FOIREQ20/00187
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 23 September 2020.
In your request you seek access to the fol owing:
copy of that briefing book or pack used by the Information Commissioner on Tuesday 3 2020
(when she appeared before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation
Committee for the 2019-20 Additional Budget Estimates).
Timeframes for dealing with your request
Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your requests no later than 30 days
after the day we receive them. However, section 15(6) of the FOI Act allows us a further 30
days in situations where we need to consult with third parties about certain information,
such as business documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.
However, this time wil be stopped until we have completed this consultation with you
regarding the scope of your request.
Notice of intention to refuse your request
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
freedom of information requests.
I am writing to tell you that I believe that the work involved in processing your request in its
current form will substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the OAIC from its
other operations due to its size and scope. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (under s
24AA of the FOI Act).
On this basis, I intend to refuse access to the documents you have requested. However,
before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to revise your request. This
is cal ed a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under s 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14
days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out at the end of this letter.
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
Why I intend to refuse your request
Calculation of the processing time
I estimate it wil take the OAIC at least 64.8 hours to process your FOI request in its current
form.
There are 57 documents that were prepared for the Australian Information Commissioner's
appearance before Senate Estimates on Tuesday 3 March 2020. The documents are complex
and a resourced from various sections of the OAIC. The 57 documents comprise
approximately 670 pages.
Of those 670 pages, a portion of the documents pertaining to the OAIC’s FOI functions are
published on the OAIC’s website disclosure log in two former FOI requests received by the
OAIC.
To calculate the processing time, I have taken the fol owing factors into account:
I estimate it wil take one hour per 20 documents to prepare a document schedule listing
the document number, date, number of pages and a description of each document. I
therefore estimate it wil take approximately 3 hours to prepare a schedule for 57
documents.
Based on a sample of six documents (70 pages) and the complex nature of each
document, I estimate it wil take 2 minutes to examine each page to assess whether it can
be released or whether it wil be subject to an exemption (either in ful or in part), and
approximately 3 minutes to prepare an edited copy of the documents, including the
redaction of exempt material. On the basis that there wil be at least 670 pages within the
scope of the request this task wil take at least 55.8 hours.
The documents contain a mix of complex and sensitive information obtained from
various line areas which may require consultation with OAIC internal staff with subject
matter expertise. The documents also relate to at least two third parties who would need
to be consulted in relation to the request under s 27 of the FOI Act. I estimate that it wil
take a minimum of 4 hours to prepare and send consultation notices and consider each
entity’s response.
To update the schedule to record the FOI decision and write a decision statement for the
FOI applicant will take approximately 2 hours.
I have therefore calculated it will take at least 64.8 hours to process your FOI request.
Diversion of resources
An estimate of processing time is only one of the considerations to be taken into account
when deciding whether a practical refusal reason exists. As well as requiring a request to
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substantial y divert an agency’s resources, s 24AA also requires the request to unreasonably
divert an agency’s resources from its other functions before it can be refused under s 24.
The Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Guidelines) identify matters that may be relevant when deciding
whether processing the request wil unreasonably divert an agency’s resources from its
other functions. These include:
the staffing resources available to the agency for FOI processing
the impact that processing a request may have on other work in the agency, including FOI
processing whether an applicant has cooperated in framing a request to reduce the
processing workload
whether there is a significant public interest in the documents requested
other steps taken by an agency or minister to publish information of the kind
requested by an applicant.
The OAIC is a smal agency, employing approximately 140 (head count) staff. Processing a
request of this size would substantial y impact on the OAIC’s operations because of the
limited number of people the OAIC has available to process FOI requests. This makes it likely
that staff will be diverted from their other work in the OAIC, including:
undertaking regulatory functions in both FOI and privacy
undertaking activities set out in the OAIC’s 2020/2021 Corporate Plan such as:
− conciliating and investigating privacy complaints, responding to notifiable data
breaches, and overseeing the privacy aspects of the My Health Record system and
Consumer Data Right scheme
− monitoring compliance with new legislation and providing guidance and education
materials to support participants in the COVIDSafe system
− develop a binding code of practice for digital platforms increases the privacy
protection of Australians in the online environment
− improve agencies’ processes for managing FOI requests
−
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
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Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, as
wel as excluding information that has previously been published on our disclosure log, we
will be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to
process documents you are not interested in.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the fol owing, in writing:
withdraw your request
make a revised request
tel us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you receive this notice.
Therefore, you must respond to this notice by 29 October 2020.
During this period, you can ask the contact person (see below) for help to revise your
request. If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal
grounds outlined above, we wil recommence processing it. (Please note that the time taken
to consult you regarding the scope of your request is not taken into account for the purposes
of the 30 day time limit for processing your request.)
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period or you do
not consult the contact person during this period, your request wil be taken to have been
withdrawn.
Ways you can reduce the scope of your request
There are a number of ways that you can reduce the scope of your request to enable us to
process it without unreasonably diverting our resources from our other operations. These
include limiting the scope of your request to:
only include documents that were prepared for the witnesses in relation to a specific
topic or documents that exclude a number of topics. The transcript of the hearing may
provide information to assist you to limit your request to a particular subject or to
exclude topics from your request. The transcript can be found at:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Estimates_Transcript_Sched
ule
exclude third party personal information, and
exclude information that is publicly available. For instance some documents are
published on the OAIC’s FOI disclosure log relating to Senate Estimates this calendar year
(2020): See https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/access-our-information/our-foi-
disclosure-log/?keyword=Senate%20Estimates&start=0&year=2020. In addition, some
documents such as media articles are otherwise publicly available.
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Contact officer
If you would like to revise your request, or have any questions, you can contact me at
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx or on (02) 8231 4207.
Yours sincerely,
Angela Wong
Lawyer
15 October 2020
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