DEFENCE FOI 261/21/22 STATEMENT OF REASONS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF 
INFORMATION ACT 
1. 
I refer to the application by Ben McKelvey under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 
(FOI Act) for access to: 
“Access to a document in which the number of EKIA due to Australian operations in 
Afghanistan has been collated and similar documentation which includes the number 
of civilian and collateral deaths.” 
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 no documents as matching the description of the request.  
Decision 
4. 
I have decided to refuse access to the request under subparagraph 
24A(1)(b)(ii)[Requests may be refused if documents cannot be found, do not exist or have not 
been received] of the FOI Act. 
Material taken into account 
5. 
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). 
Section 24A(l) - Requests May Be Refused 
6. 
Section 24A(l) of the FOI Act states: 
Requests may be refused if documents cannot be found, do not exist or have not been 
received 
Document lost or non-existent 
(1) 
An agency or Minister may refuse a request for access to a document if: 
(a) 
all reasonable steps have been taken to find the document; and 
 
 
Defending Australia and its National Interests 
 

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(b) 
the agency or Minister is satisfied that the document: 
(i) 
is in the agency’s or Minister’s possession but cannot be found; or 
(ii)  does not exist. 
7. 
The Guidelines, at paragraphs 3.85 to 3.94 provide guidance on the steps that should be 
taken by Agencies to find a document and the considerations for refusing a request if 
documents cannot be found or do not exist. 
8. 
To ensure that ‘all reasonable steps’ have been taken in this request, every reasonable 
avenue of locating the documents has been exhausted.  The details of these searches are 
outlined below. 
9. 
Headquarters Joint Operations Command, in consult with relevant areas of the 
Department, conducted searches on Objective, Defence’s document and record management 
system, servers containing historic operational data and other relevant repositories. No 
records were located relating to, or containing, aggregated lists of enemy killed in action or 
the number of civilian and collateral deaths. 
10.  I am satisfied that ‘all reasonable steps’ have been taken to locate the documents sought 
by the applicant. I am satisfied that the documents cannot be found or do not exist, and refuse 
access to this request under section 24A(l) of the FOI Act. 
 
Colonel Christopher Austin 
Accredited Decision Maker 
Headquarters Joint Operations Command 
 
 

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