This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Correspondence'.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      
 
 
 
ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT 
  
BARTON 
    FOI 
 
 
FOI/2021/046 
 
 
 
Ms Eleanor Davey 
 
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx      
 
 
Dear Ms Davey 
 
I refer to your email of 21 March 2021, in which you made a request to the Department of the 
Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 
(the FOI Act), in the following terms: 
 
I would like to access under the FOI act copies of correspondence and/or records of 
conversations involving the Prime Minister's Office related to the decision to remove 
children and families from the Regional Processing Centre in Papua New Guinea in 
2013.  

 
On 30 March 2021, the Department wrote to you to advise that your request did not provide 
such information as is reasonably necessary to enable the Department to identify the 
documents being sought, and was therefore not a valid FOI request under section 15(2) of the 
FOI Act.  
 
On 2 April 2021, you advised the Department that your request is for the following: 
 
I am looking for correspondence and/or records of conversations with the Prime 
Minister’s Office, held by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, that 
reference a decision to remove children and families from the Regional Processing 
Centre in Papua New Guinea.   
  
In terms of time frame, I confirm that the search should be limited to documents 
created during a two month period preceding initial media reports of the removal of 
children and families from the Regional Processing Centre in Papua New Guinea (i.e. 
20 April 2013 to 20 June 2013). 
 
 
Authorised decision-maker 
 
The authorised decision-maker for your request is Mr Christopher Robertson, Acting 
Assistant Secretary, Home Affairs Branch. 
 
 
 

Postal Address:  PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600 
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849   Fax: +61 2 6271 5776   www.pmc.gov.au   ABN:  18 108 001 191 

 
 
Notice of practical refusal reason 
 
Section 24(1) of the FOI Act provides that a request to an agency may be refused if the 
decision maker is satisfied that a practical refusal reason (as set out in section 24AA of the 
FOI Act) exists in relation to the request. 
I write to advise you that the decision-maker has reviewed your request and considers that a 
practical refusal reason (as set out in section 24AA of the FOI Act) exists in relation to the 
request. This is on the basis that the work involved in processing your request, in its current 
form, would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the Department from its 
other operations. This constitutes a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI 
Act. On this basis, the decision maker intends to refuse access to the documents you have 
requested.      
Section 24AB(9) of the FOI Act provides that the Department is only required to undertake 
the consultation once. However, before the decision maker makes a final decision to refuse 
the request for a practical refusal reason, the decision-maker has decided to provide you with 
a further opportunity to revise your request under section 24AB of the FOI Act. Accordingly, 
you have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below. 
Reasons for intention to refuse your request 
In deciding if a practical refusal reason exists, an agency must have regard to the resources 
required to perform the following activities specified in section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act:1 
  identifying, locating or collating documents within the filing system of the agency; 
  examining the documents; 
  deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access; 
  consulting with other parties; 
  redacting exempt material from the documents; 
  making copies of documents; 
  notifying an interim or final decision to the applicant. 
 
Other matters may be relevant in deciding if a practical refusal reason exists such as the 
staffing resources available to an agency for FOI processing, whether the processing can only 
be undertaken by one or more specialist officers in an agency who have competing 
responsibilities, the impact that processing may have on other work in an agency including 
FOI processing, and whether there is a significant public interest in the documents requested.2 
 
Preliminary document searches undertaken to date have identified over 827 documents 
potentially within scope of your request. 
 
Before the decision-maker can make a decision regarding any disclosure of documents, these 
documents would need to be carefully examined and manually reviewed for relevance to your 
request. It is not known how many of these documents have other documents embedded in 
them (for example, attachments to emails), nor how many of these documents may be 
duplicates.  
 
                                                 
1 ‘Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of the Freedom of Information 
Act 1982
’, Part 3 – Processing and Deciding on Requests for Access (Version 1.6, January 2018), [3.116]. 
2 Ibid, [3.117]. 
 


 
For the 827 documents identified to date, the process of reviewing for relevance would 
require, at a minimum, opening the relevant document, reading the document, extracting the 
document if relevant to the request, and closing the document. 
 
The decision-maker has formed the view that, in order to process your FOI request, the task of 
thoroughly examining the material identified to date, firstly to confirm whether the material is 
within the scope of the FOI request and, secondly, to decide whether that material should be 
released, will be unreasonably time consuming. Documents would then have to be checked, 
possible redactions made, a schedule of documents prepared and a decision letter written, 
which would also add to the time required to process your request.  
 
It is also likely that any documents that may ultimately be identified as within the scope of 
your request would require consultation with a range of third parties. Based on a conservative 
estimate of one page per document for 823 electronic documents and 200 pages per file for 4 
paper files, it is estimated that it would involve over 194 hours to process your request. The 
actual time involved to process your request would likely be significantly higher, as it is most 
likely that each electronic document is comprised of a number of pages. 
 
The Department acknowledges that the processing of requests for access to documents is a 
legitimate part of each agency’s functions, and that FOI requests may require reallocation of 
resources within an agency. However, the Department could not reasonably divert sufficient 
resources to process this request. In reaching this view, the Department has had regard to the 
public interest in access to information held by the Department but considers the public 
interest in access is outweighed by the competing public interest in the ability of the 
Department to undertake its ordinary functions without substantial impairment, including the 
processing of other FOI requests. 
 
For the reasons given above, the decision maker considers that processing your request in its 
current form would be a substantial and unreasonable diversion of the Department’s resources 
from its other operations. 
 
Request consultation process 
 
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed. Revising your 
request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more manageable or 
explaining in more detail the specific documents you wish to access. We will assess whether 
any revised request has removed the practical refusal reason. 
 
You may wish to consider revising your FOI request by, for example:  
  limiting your request to a particular type of document; and/or 
  further narrowing the date range for the documents you are seeking. 
 
No guarantee of access 
 
Please be aware that even if you revise your FOI request to enable it to be processed, there is 
still no guarantee that documents will ultimately be released. That is a matter for the  
decision-maker to decide in the usual manner after examining the relevant documents. The 
issue we are addressing at the moment is whether your FOI request can be processed – not 
what the eventual outcome may be if it is processed. 
 
 
 
 



 
Action required 
Section 24AB of the FOI Act provides that you must do one of the following, in writing, 
within the next 14 days: 
  revise your FOI request;  
  indicate that you do not wish to revise it; or 
  withdraw the FOI request. 
 
If you do not do one of the above within the next 14 days, your FOI request will be taken to 
have been withdrawn. If you were to revise your FOI request in a way that adequately 
addresses the above concerns and makes it manageable, the Department will recommence 
processing it.   
 
Calculation of 30 day period 
 
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your FOI request is 
not taken into account for the purposes of calculating the 30 day period during which the 
Department is required to take all reasonable steps to process your FOI request.  
 
Should you wish to discuss your request, please contact the Department’s FOI and Privacy 
Section on (02) 6271 5849, or by email to xxx@xxx.xxx.xx, quoting reference number 
FOI/2021/046.  
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
Andra Eisenberg 
A/g Senior Adviser 
FOI and Privacy Section 
13 April 2021