Our reference: FOIREQ21/00001
Julie
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Your freedom of information request - FOIREQ21/00001
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 25 December 2020.
In your request you seek access to the fol owing:
“…copy of all records of third party consultation alleged to have been
undertaken in FOIREQ20/00220.”
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
FOI requests.
I have identified 6 documents within the scope of your request. I have decided to grant
you access to the documents in full. A schedule describing the documents and access
decision I have made has also been provided with this decision.
Irrelevant material (s 22)
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that irrelevant information can be deleted from a
document if it is reasonably practicable to prepare a copy of the document modified
by deletions, and the modified copy would not disclose the irrelevant material.
On 11 January 2021, i wrote to you to seek confirmation on whether or not you seek
access to third party contact details (email address and phone number) within the
scope of your request.
On 14 January 2021 you responded to my email and stated:
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
* I do not seek phone numbers and they may be redacted under section 22 as
irrelevant; and
* I do not seek the beginning of email addresses (anything before the @ - typically the
name of an individual in part or in full or some abbreviation thereof) - the latter part of
email addresses (the domain name) may be relevant to identifying if a party is a third
party or an internal party so is in scope.
Part of documents 5 and 6 contain information that is not relevant to the scope of your
request. As such, I have decided to redact this information from the document under
section 22 of the FOI Act.
Please see the following page for your review rights and information about the OAIC’s
disclosure log.
Yours sincerely
Joseph Gouvatsos
Lawyer
5 February 2021
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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 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.
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 to
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on
02 9284 9666.
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 60 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
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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 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:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Or by email to
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
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on the
Access our information page
on our website.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish online documents released to members
of the public within 10 days of release, except if they contain personal or business information
that would be unreasonable to publish.
The documents I have decided to release to you do not contain business or personal
information that would be unreasonable to publish. As a result, the documents wil be
published on our
disclosure log shortly after being released to you.
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Document Outline