Telephone: (02) 9230 8567
FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
PRINCIPAL REGISTRY
Your Ref:
LEVEL 16
Our Ref:
LAW COURTS BUILDING
QUEENS SQUARE
SYDNEY NSW 2000
8 April 2021
David Bishay
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Bishay,
Request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
I refer to your request, dated 15 March 2021, made to the Federal Court of Australia (
Court)
for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act).
Since receiving your FOI request, it has become apparent to the Court that at least one
document captured by your request of 15 March 2021 contains personal information about
employees of the Court. It appears to the Court that the persons concerned “
might reasonably
wish to make a contention” under section 27A of the FOI Act that the document in question is
conditionally exempt under section 47F of the FOI Act and that access to the document would,
on balance, be contrary to the public interest for the purposes of subsection 11A(5). In
accordance with subsection 27A(3) of the FOI Act, the Court must give such persons a
“
reasonable opportunity to make submissions in support of the exemption contention” before
making a decision about whether to release a document that contains personal information
about those persons.
In light of the above, the Court has determined that the requirements of section 27A of the FOI
Act make it appropriate to extend the period for processing your request by a further period of
30 days in accordance with section 15(6). This means that the processing period for your
request will now end on 14 May 2021.
Yours sincerely,
C Hammerton Cole
Registrar