FOI 45443
Request consultation notice due to existence of a practical refusal
reason under section 24AB of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Practical Refusal Consultation Notice of Jessy (Position Number 62320730), Information
Law Section, Legal Services and Audit Branch, Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Applicant:
Mr Alan Ashmore
Decision date:
12 November 2021
FOI reference number:
FOI 45443
Sent by (email, post etc):
Via Email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Ashmore
Freedom of Information Request: FOI 45443
Purpose of this notice
1. The purpose of this notice is to advise you (as required under section 24AB of the
Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (
FOI Act)) that I intend to refuse your request on the basis that a
practical refusal reason exists, as defined by section 24AA of the FOI Act.
2. Based on the terms of your request, and from initial searches undertaken to respond to your
request, I am of the view that a practical refusal reason exists because:
a. Processing your request is likely to result in a substantial and unreasonable diversion
of the Department’s resources from its other operations (section 24AA(1)(b) of the FOI
Act).
Authority to make decision
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3. I, Jessy (Position Number 62320730), Information Access Officer, Information Law Section,
am an officer authorised to make decisions in accordance with section 23(1) of the
Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (
FOI Act).
Scope of your request
4. On 2 September 2021 you made a request for access to documents in the possession of the
Department. Your request sought access to:
In relation to the appointment of a National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide
Prevention to inquire into suicides of serving and former ADF members:
I am seeking all documents including the initial brief/direction, and all aspects of the
development of this policy by DVA up to and including 4 February 2020.
Documentation to include every document/s including internal emails and minutes of
meeting/s pertaining to the development of this policy.
Power to refuse a request
5. 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.
6. However, before I make a decision to refuse your request 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 at page
5. As mentioned below, you can request more time to consider and respond to this notice.
Please let me know if you would like additional time to respond.
When does a practical refusal reason exist (section 24AA of the FOI Act)
7. The practical refusal reason applicable to your request is that:
a. Processing your request, as best the Department can understand the terms, is likely to
result in a substantial and unreasonable diversion of the Department’s resources from
its other operations (section 24AA(1)(b) of the FOI Act).
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8. Under section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act, the Department must have regard to the resources
that would have to be used for:
• identifying, locating or col ating the documents within the filing system of the
agency;
• deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to which the
request relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of such a document (including
resources that would have to be used for examining the document or consulting
with any person or body in relation to the request);
• making a copy or an edited copy, of the document; and
• notifying any interim or final decision on the request.
9. Further, the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of
the FOI Act (
FOI Guidelines) identify matters that may be relevant when deciding whether
processing the request will unreasonably divert an agency’s resources from its other
functions. These include:
• the staffing resources available to the agency for FOI processing;
• the impact that processing a request may have on other work in the agency,
including FOI processing;
• whether an applicant has cooperated in framing a request to reduce the processing
workload;
• whether there is a significant public interest in the documents requested; and
• other steps taken by an agency or minister to publish information of the kind
requested by an applicant.
10. I consider that the staffing resources available to the agency for FOI processing and the
impact that processing a request may have on other work in the agency, including FOI
processing; have a bearing on your request. The reasons why a practical refusal reason exists
in relation to your request are set out below.
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Why I intend to refuse your request
Request is substantial
11. Section 24AA(1)(a) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to
a request for a document if the work involved in processing the request would substantially
and unreasonably divert the resources of the department from its other operations.
12. Following initial enquiries, I estimate that 80 hours of processing time is required to deal
with this request. The reasons for this are as follows:
• I estimate that there are approximately 1692 pages of material relevant to your
request. These 1692 pages are contained over 238 documents identified as being
relevant to your request.
• The material relevant to your request is considered sensitive in their entirety or
contain sensitive material.
• The relevant documents wil need to be analysed and a decision made before they
can be released to you. The documents subject to your request are in relation to
policy development leading to the appointment of a National Commissioner for
Defence and Veteran Suicide. It is estimated that:
o Searching and collating documents has taken 25 hours.
o 10 hours wil be required to consider the exemptions and applicable
redactions to the documents;
o 30 hours wil be required to consult with another agency and for that agency
to consider exemptions and applicable redactions;
o 5 hours will be required to prepare a decision and statement of reasons; and
o 10 hours wil be required to prepare a schedule of documents to accompany
the decision and statement of reasons.
13. Taking these factors into account, I have concluded the request as it currently stands is
substantial.
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Request is unreasonable
14. For the purpose of providing this notice, I have considered whether the substantial resource
burden would be unreasonable having regard to the fol owing:
• 80 hours
of processing time is, at face value, an unreasonable burden for a single
FOI request, taking into account the need to process multiple requests at any given
time, and the impact such a burden would have on responding to other FOI
applicants and for the relevant business area to undertake their designated duties.
15. Taking this into account, I am of the view that the request as it currently stands is
unreasonable, as well as substantial.
Ways you can revise the scope of your request
16. You now have an opportunity to revise your request so that the grounds for a practical
refusal are removed.
17. 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, we
wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to
process documents you are not interested in.
18. Please note that even if you do modify your request, it is possible that a practical refusal
reason under section 24AA may stil exist and/or the Department may need further time to
process your revised request. This will depend on the revision you agree to make. As far as is
reasonably practicable, we are happy to provide you with further information to assist you in
revising your request so that it removes the practical refusal grounds.
Next steps
19. Before the end of the consultation period, which is
close of business Friday, 26 November
2021 (being 14 days from receiving this notice), you must do one of the following, in writing:
• withdraw the request;
• make a revised request; or
• indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
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20. During this period, you can ask me for help to revise your request. If you revise your request
in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal grounds outlined above, we will
recommence processing it.
21. If you indicate you do not wish to revise your request, the Department wil proceed to make
a decision on whether to refuse the request on the grounds that processing your request wil
result in a diversion of the Department’s resources under section 24(1) of the FOI Act.
22. If you do not respond in one of these ways within 14 days (by
COB 26 November 2021), the
request wil be taken to have been withdrawn pursuant to section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act.
23. If you need more time to respond, please contact the Information Law Section via the below
contacts, within the 14 day period to discuss your need for an extension of time.
Suspension of processing time
24. Please note under section 24AB(8) of the FOI Act, the time for processing your FOI request is
suspended from the day you receive this notice until the day you do one of the things listed
above.
Contact us
25. If you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the Information Law
Section using the fol owing details:
Post:
Legal Services and Audit Branch, Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601
Facsimile:
(02) 6289 6337
Email:
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
Jessy (Position Number 62320730)
Information Access Officer
Information Law Section
Legal Services and Audit Branch
12 November 2021
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Document Outline
