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This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Transfield staff at Nauru RPC'.


 
 
 
 
28 October 2021 
Ms Davey, Eleanor 
BY EMAIL:  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx 
In reply please quote: 
FOI Request:  FA 21/08/01045 
File Number: 
OBJ2021/25817 
Dear Ms Davey,   
I  refer to your email dated 20 August 2021 in which  you request access to documents held by 
the Department of Home  Affairs (the Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 
(the FOI Act). 
I  am  writing to  tell you that I  intend to refuse your request on the basis that a practical refusal 
reason exists. However, before I  make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to 
revise your request to remove the practical refusal reason. This is called a ‘request consultation 
process’. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below. 
Power to refuse request  
Section 24 of the FOI  Act provides that if the Department is satisfied that a practical refusal 
reason exists  in  relation to a  request, the Department must undertake a consultation process 
with you, and if, after that consultation process, the Department remains satisfied that the 
practical refusal reason stil  exists, the Department may refuse to give you access to the 
documents subject to the request. 
Practical refusal 
A practical refusal reason exists if either (or both) of the following applies: 
(a) 
the work involved in the processing of the request would substantially and 
unreasonably divert the resources of the Department from its other operations  
(b) 
the request does not satisfy the requirement in section 15(2)(b) of the FOI  Act, 
which requires you to provide such information concerning the document you are 
seeking access to, to enable the Department to be able to identify it. 
 
 
 
 
6 Chan Street Belconnen ACT 2617 
PO Box 25 Belconnen ACT 2616 • Telephone: 02 6264 1111 • Fax: 02 6225 6970 • www.homeaffairs.gov.au 
 
 

 
 
Scope of Request 
You have requested access to the following: 
 
I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act, 
 
•  the number of times per year that Transfield has been required to investigate behaviour 
of individual staff members contracted to work at the Nauru Regional Processing Centre 
since 2012; 
•  the number of times these investigations led to a change in a staff member’s duties; 
•  the number of times these investigations led to termination of a staff member’s contract. 
 
Thank you for your assistance. 
Reasons for practical refusal 
 
We have conducted searches with the area of the Department who were responsible for 
contract management of the relevant contract between Transfield and the Commonwealth and 
are advised that this came to an end on 31 October 2017. At the completion of this contract, a 
very large quantity of data, containing anywhere between 10,000 and 280,000 records, was 
transferred to the Department in line with contractual obligations.  
Transfield, as the supplier to the Commonwealth, maintained the responsibility for personnel 
management of its own  staff. These personnel management records were not available to the 
Department and there was no requirement for this, with the exception of some ‘key personnel’.  
The Department commenced a manual search of the Transfield data for any records of key 
personnel that may be in scope for this request, however in 3 business days was able to locate 
just 6 historical incident reports. In relation to these historical incident reports, further searches 
would need to be undertaken of the Transfield records to identify any associated records that 
relate to key personnel and then the data constructed from these source documents.  
The Department has made a preliminary assessment of the documents that would be captured 
by your request. 
I  am satisfied that the Department would  be required to divert significant resources from its 
current operations in order to  identify, locate and collate the documents held within  the 
Department, and to make a decision on access to those documents. This diversion would result 
in a significant drain on the resources of the area within the Department that would be required 
to process this request.  
I consider that this would result in this request imposing both a substantial and an unreasonable 
diversion of resources of the Department from its other operations and that a practical refusal 
reason exists in relation to this request. 
Request Consultation Process 
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed. 
Changes which you may consider to scope which may remove the practical refusal include 
limiting the timeframe of the request to a period of 6 to 12 months and limiting the scope to key 
personnel, or any other revision you could make that would assist us to meet your information 
requirements without incurring a significant diversion of resources.  
 
 
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Under section 24AB of the FOI Act, you have 14 days to do one of the following: 
•  withdraw your request; 
•  make a revised request; 
•  indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.  
If  you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period (14 days) or 
you do not consult the contact person listed below during this period, your request wil  continue 
to be processed on the basis of the present scope.  
Contact 
Should you wish to revise your request or have any questions in relation to this process, please 
do not hesitate to contact the decision maker at xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.  
 
Signed electronically 
 
Glen  
Position number 60081621 
Authorised Decision Maker | Freedom of Information Section 
FOI and Records Management Branch 
Data Division | Strategy and National Resilience Group 
Department of Home Affairs 
 
 
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