Our reference: FOI 20/21-0806
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
15 June 2021
ndis.gov.au
Karen Reynolds
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Karen Reynolds
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 1 June 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:
“…the fol owing information:
- the name of the external research company employed to craft strategies to assist with
messaging about unpopular changes and around al eged ‘scheme sustainability’ to the
NDIS as per this recent and badly written article https://travelsguide.blog/ndia-hired-
research-company-to-sel -controversial-changes-to-staff-and-public-leaks-reveal-
national-disability-insurance-scheme/?amp - ie ‘a fairer NDIS’
- how much the company was paid and how they were contracted (ie via an open tender
process)
- any notes, documents, feedback, transcripts or emails relating to this and related
activities, including via focus groups and staff consultation”
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 –
On 11 June 2021, we advised you that your request did not satisfy section 15(2)(b) of the FOI
Act, as the terms of your request were too broad and we were unable to identify the specific
documents sought. We sought further information from you about the documents you were
requesting access to, to which you did not respond.
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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
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 5:00pm 29 June 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
Freedom of Information Officer
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
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