DEFENCE FOI 523/20/21 STATEMENT OF REASONS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF 
INFORMATION ACT 
1. 
I refer to the application by Ben Fairless under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 
(FOI Act) for access to: 
“1. A copy of the final directive issued to Defence personnel referred to in the ABC 
article. 
 
2. A copy of all drafts created of the directive. 
 
3. A copy of any comments or correspondence made in relation to any of the drafts. 
 
4. A copy of any correspondence with any ministerial office, minister or member of 
parliament that relates to LGBTI or IDAHOBIT in 2021. 
 
5. A copy of any correspondence with Defence Leadership (SES/chiefs) including their 
assistants) that relates to LGBTI or IDAHOBIT in 2021.” 
 
FOI decision maker 
2. 
I am the authorised officer pursuant to section 23 of the FOI Act to make a decision on 
this FOI request. 
 
Documents identified 
3. 
I identified documents as matching the description of the request.  
4. 
To avoid a practical refusal notice, I have interpreted your request to be seeking 
documents from the date of the ABC article you quoted in your request (21 May 2021) to the 
date of the submission of your request (26 May 2021). 
 
Exclusions 
5. 
Personal email addresses, signatures, PMKeyS numbers and mobile telephone numbers 
contained in documents that fall within the scope of the FOI request, duplicates of documents, 
and documents sent to or from the applicant are excluded from this request. Defence has only 
considered final versions of documents. 
 
Decision 
6. 
I have decided to release the documents in full in accordance with section 22 [access to 
edited copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted] of the FOI Act. 
Defending Australia and its National Interests 
 

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Material taken into account 
 
7. 
In making my decision, I had regard to: 
a.  the terms of the request; 
b.  the content of the identified documents in issue; 
c.  relevant provisions in the FOI Act; and 
d.  the Guidelines published by the Office of the Australian Information 
Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act (the Guidelines). 
 
Digitally signed by 
 
joanne.groves 
 
joanne.groves Date: 2021.07.07 11:54:33 
 
 
+10'00'
Joanne Groves 
Accredited Decision Maker 
Associate Secretary Group 

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