Our ref: 67295
Harry Witherspoon
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Harry Witherspoon
Freedom of Information Act – Notice of intention to refuse
I refer to your request received by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the
department) on 17 October 2020, in which you sought access under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (the FOI Act) to the following:
I would like to see the date, time, destination number, call duration and (where available)
geographical origin of all telephone calls made by Regional Incubator Facilitator Daniel Smith from
his telephone number (0419 817 671) to any department telephone number from 1/11/2018 until
22/11/2018 inclusively and from 28/10/2019 until 15/12/2019 inclusively.
Under subsection 24(1) of the FOI Act, I am satisfied that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to
this request. The practical refusal reason is that the work involved in processing the request would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the department from its other operations.
My view is based on a conservative estimate that over 38 hours of search and retrieval time is required
to deal with this request. I also wish to advise that there are over 4000 pages of landline call details (for
each billing month) to then conduct searches through to identify the relevant information. There are
additional areas where searches have not been completed which are likely to have additional relevant
documents and therefore the total number of relevant documents is likely to be higher than the
estimate.
In accordance with section 24(1)(a) and 24AB of the FOI Act, I am writing to provide you with written
notice that I intend to refuse your request on the grounds that a practical refusal reason exists and to
initiate a request consultation process in accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act.
Request consultation process
Before I make a decision to refuse your request under section 24(1)(b) of the FOI Act, I would like to
provide you with the opportunity to revise the scope of your request so that a ‘practical refusal reason’
no longer exists. Although it is your responsibility to suggest ways that your request may be revised and
narrowed, you may consider limiting your request to particular topics or particular timeframes.
Further, you may wish to consider the following suggestions to revise the scope of your FOI request
(please note that these are suggestions only and do not guarantee the practical refusal reason/s will no
longer exist):
Consider identifying specific documents that the department may hold and not general
information which may exist within the department
Should you wish to revise your request, you must do so
within 14 days after the day you are given this
notice (unless extended by agreement with the department). If you are unable to meet this deadline
and wish to arrange an extension of time in which to consider this matter, or would like to discuss how
you could best revise the scope of the request, please contact the FOI team by email at
xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Under subsection 24AB(6) of the FOI Act, you must, before the end of the 14-day consultation period,
do one of the following by written notice to the department:
a) withdraw the request;
b) make a revised request; or
c) indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
Please note that under subsection 24AB(7), the request is taken to have been withdrawn at the end of
the 14 day consultation period if:
(a) the applicant does not consult the contact person during the consultation period in accordance
with this notice; or
(b) the applicant does not do one of the things mentioned in subsection(6) before the end of the
consultation period.
In accordance with subsection 24AB(8) of the FOI Act, the 14-day consultation period is to be
disregarded in calculating the processing period for the request.
Your written response should be addressed to:
FOI Coordinator
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
GPO Box 2013
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Or by email to: xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Should you wish to discuss this matter further, please contact the FOI team by email at
xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Heather Davidson
A/g Senior FOI Officer
Legal, Audit & Assurance
12 November 2020
industry.gov.au
Industry House - 10 Binara Street, Canberra City, ACT 2601
2
GPO Box 2013 Canberra ACT 2601 ABN: 74 599 608 295
