Australian Securities
and Investments Commission
Office address (inc courier deliveries):
Level 5, 100 Market Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
Mail address for Sydney office:
GPO Box 9827,
Brisbane QLD 4001
Tel: +61 1300 935 075
Mr Phillip Sweeney
Fax: +61 1300 729 000
www.asic.gov.au
By email: foi+request-7553-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Our Reference: 161 - 2021
18 August 2021
Dear Mr Sweeney
Freedom of Information Request - Ref 161-2021
Notice under s 24AB of the FOI Act
I refer to your request received on 16 August 2021 in which you seek access to
documents in the possession of the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission (
ASIC) pursuant to the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (
FOI Act).
Your request seeks access to the following:
(i) correspondence from the new ASIC Chairman, Joseph Longo, to
Wayne Byres, the Chairman of APRA (or to Deputy Chair Helen Rowell).
(ii) copies of any documents provided by APRA to Joseph Longo or
ASIC by Wayne Byres or APRA
The search period is from 1 June 2021 until the date APRA responds to
this FOI request.
I am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions
in relation to FOI requests.
Identification of documents: Section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act
Section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act states that a request for access to a document
must ‘
provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of an agency… to identify it’.
I am writing to advise you that the following aspect of your request does not
satisfy the requirement set out in s 15(2)(b):
(ii) copies of any documents provided by APRA to Joseph Longo or
ASIC by Wayne Byres or APRA
Based on a review of the terms of the request and preliminary inquiries
conducted with business areas, it is not possible to identify the documents
sought in this aspect of your request because of the ambiguity in the term
‘
documents provided by APRA to Joseph Longo or ASIC by Wayne Byres or
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APRA’, and ‘
The search period is from 1 June 2021 until the date APRA responds
to this FOI request’.
Specifically, it is not clear whether you consider that documents ‘
provided by
APRA to Joseph Longo or ASIC by Wayne Byres or APRA’ comprises:
documents provided by Wayne Byres or APRA to Joseph Longo and
documents provided by Wayne Byres or APRA to ASIC;
or
documents provided by APRA to Joseph Longo and ASIC; and
documents provided by Wayne Byres or APRA to any other
unnamed parties.
In addition, the timeframe within which you are seeking documents is unclear
as this FOI request was made to ASIC rather than APRA.
Hence, for the purposes of s 15(2)(b) it appears that additional information
concerning the documents is ‘reasonably necessary’ to enable an ASIC officer
to identify the documents.
Having regard to the discussion above, it would be of assistance if you would
please clarify whether you are seeking:
documents provided by Wayne Byres or APRA to Joseph Longo
documents provided by Wayne Byres or APRA to ASIC; and/or
documents provided by Wayne Byres or APRA to any other parties
that are internal or external to APRA.
Noting that the FOI Act only applies to documents that are in existence at the
date of the request, it would be of assistance if you would please clarify
whether you are seeking documents between 1 June 2021 until the date of the
FOI request (16 August 2021).
Practical refusal reason: Section 24AA(1)(b) FOI Act
I am writing to advise you that I believe that for the reasons stated above, your
request in its current form does not adequately identify the documents sought.
This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (section 24AA(1)(b)).
On this basis, I intend to refuse access to the documents you requested given
that a practical refusal reason exists within the meaning of section 24AA(1)(b)
of the FOI Act.
However, before I make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to
revise your request. This is called 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.
Request consultation process
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with an opportunity to revise your
request so that the practical refusal reason no longer exists before a final
decision is made.
Should you wish to submit a revised request please take into consideration the
issues raised in this notice to ensure that they are addressed.
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Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following,
in writing:
withdraw your request
make a revised request
tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The consultation period runs for 14 days and starts on the day after you
receive this notice.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from me as the contact
person listed below to revise your request. If you revise your request in a way
that adequately addresses the practical refusal ground outlined above, we will
recommence processing it. (Please note that the time taken to consult you
regarding the scope of your request is not taken into account for the purposes
of the 30-day time limit for processing your request.)
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation
period or you do not consult me as the contact person during this period,
your request will be taken to have been withdrawn.
Contact officer
As discussed above, during the consultation period you may contact me if you
wish to seek assistance in reframing your request.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact me on 02 9911
5716 or 0466 133 258 or by email at xxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Dr Rachel Ranjan
Lawyer - FOI & Privacy, Chief Legal Office
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Phone: 02 9911 5716
Email: xxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
