Our Reference: F21.001; File 900.01
2 February 2021
Mr Greg Kennewell
via email only to:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Kennewell,
Re: Freedom of Information Request – 650 Buffalo River Road
I refer to your request received by Council on 18 January 2021, where you sought access to
documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 [Vic] (the FOI Act).
Specifical y, you advised you were seeking access to:
“I would like to request previous development applications council has received in
relation to the subject property (650 Buffalo River Road), the council determinations and
responses.”
Valid request
Section 17 of the FOI Act requires al of the fol owing requirements to be met before a request
can be considered valid:
(1) A person who wishes to obtain access to a document of an agency or an official
document of a Minister shal make a request in writing to the agency or Minister as the
case requires for access to the document.
(2) A request shal provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister, as the case may
be, to identify the document.
(2A) A request must be accompanied by a fee of 2 fee units.
(2B) An application fee may be waived or reduced, whether or not the fee has been paid,
if the payment of the fee would cause hardship to the applicant.
Clarification of request
Section 13 of the Act sets out the right of access, which is a right to obtain access to a document
of an agency other than an exempt document. That is, a request must be for documents and
not just for information as such.
As it presently stands, some aspects of your request are unclear and need to be clarified.
I draw your attention to section 17(2) of the Act, which states that a request shal provide such
information concerning the document as it is reasonably necessary to identify the document. In
accordance with s17(4) of the Act, I invite you to consult with me to discuss how your request
could be amended so that it is in a form that can be processed.
In order to assist you, I make the fol owing specific comments in response to your request:
“I would like to request previous development applications council has received in relation to
the subject property (650 Buffalo River Road), the council determinations and responses.”
a. Please confirm that the property you are seeking is 650 Buffalo River Road, Buffalo
River 3737?
b. Please clarify what you mean by ‘development applications’? Do you mean one or all
of the following examples: planning permits, building permits, environmental health
permits, subdivisions? Are there any other types of permits / applications you are
referring to?
c. To help narrow the search for documents, could you please advise if there is a
particular item or issue that you’re searching for with regards to applications /
determinations on this property?
d. Please clarify what you mean by ‘responses’, and how these are different to
‘determinations’?
e. Please specify a timeframe for Council to search for documents – a date ‘from’ and a
date ‘to’ would be very useful to assist in narrowing the search for documents – eg
January 2018 – January 2021.
Assistance outside of the FOI Act
Section 16 of the FOI Act encourages agencies to publish or provide documents outside of the
FOI Act where they can properly do so under relevant legislation. Council’s Public Transparency
Policy also encourages Council to make information available where possible under relevant
legislation.
If the information you are seeking is relating to planning permits, it may be more appropriate
for Council to assist you under the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Once we receive the
clarification points above, we wil advise you which Act we are best able to provide you the
information under (or a combination of both).
Application Fee for FOI Act
Once we have received clarification of what you are seeking, if it is determined that some of the
information is only available through the FOI Act, section 17(2A) of the FOI Act requires that an
application fee of 2 fee units ($29.60) accompanies a request for access to documents.
As this fee has not been paid, your FOI request cannot be processed until payment, or proof of
hardship (such as a Centrelink concession card), is received.
We will advise you whether your clarified request fal s within the FOI Act. Should this be the
case, we wil provide you with appropriate methods of making payment, including cheque or
credit card.
The statutory decision period wil commence on the date your FOI application becomes valid in
accordance with section 17.
Prescribed fees under the Planning and Environment Act
Please note, that where it is determined that the information should be made available to you
under the Planning and Environment Act 1987, that there may also be fees payable under that
Act. We wil advise you further once we have received clarification of your request.
Access charges for FOI Act
In addition to the FOI application fee, once a formal decision regarding access to the documents
has been made, FOI access charges wil also be payable prior to Council releasing documents to
you. We wil provide you with more details regarding access charges once we have determined
which parts of your request fal under the FOI Act. Please note that for very broad FOI requests,
there may be a large search time required to process these (charged at a statutory $22.20 /
hour).
Where FOI access charges are likely to be more than $50, Council wil provide you with a deposit
notice. The statutory decision period restarts from the date that any deposit is received. Access
charges must be paid prior to Council releasing documents under the FOI Act.
Consultation
The FOI Act requires Council to consult with third parties regarding disclosure of their
information, in particular where documents identified as part of your request contain:
documents affecting personal privacy – where any person may be identified; documents relating
to trade secrets – which contain business information; and where documents contain material
obtained in confidence.
Where Council is required to consult with third parties, the statutory decision period extends
from 30 days to 45 days after a valid FOI request has been received (see section 17 on previous
pages for validity requirements).
Please contact me at
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx or by phone on 03 5755 0555 to clarify the
terms of your request, or to discuss this matter further.
Yours sincerely,
Original signed by
B Schultz
Belinda Schultz
Governance Officer
