Our reference: FOI 20/21-0635
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
30 April 2021
ndis.gov.au
Emily Healy
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Emily Healy
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 14 April 2021, in which you requested access under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National Disability
Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to documents about the National Disability Insurance Scheme
(NDIS). Specifical y, you requested access to:
“...I’m enquiring regarding the proposed changes to Early Intervention. If a participant is
using a program not on your list that is not widely used, but is gaining significant
improvements to in their development and behaviour wil this continue to be funded? If
they aren’t currently using the program/therapy but have heard of this therapy when they
receive their funding and wish to use it as they have been referred to it from either a
clinician or a client of the service can they use it? Can you show an exact list of therapies
that wil be al owed? Is that how the changes wil be structured- only ‘al owed therapies’.
If so how does that al ow for choice and control.”
Practical refusal
I am authorised to make decisions under the FOI Act.
I am writing to advise that your request does not provide enough information about the
documents you are seeking access to, and in its current form is likely to result in a substantial
and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is cal ed a ‘practical refusal reason’ under
section 24AA of the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am
writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is cal ed a ‘request
consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request –
Your request does not satisfy section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, as the terms of your request are
too broad and we are unable to identify the specific documents that you seek.
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 documents you wish to access. For example, by
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providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, the
NDIA wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources
to process documents you are not interested in.
You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
fol owing:
a. withdraw your request;
b. make a revised request; or
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.
You can contact me by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the fol owing address:
Freedom of Information Section
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 14 May 2021, your FOI request wil be
taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and wil not be dealt with any further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Ausilia Woodhead
Assistant Director
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
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