ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT
BARTON
FOI
FOI/2022/019 Trav S
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Trav S,
I refer to your email of 7 January 2022 in which you made a request to the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department) under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in the following terms:
1. Please provide a copy of all correspondence between public servants Peter Rush and John
Reid regarding the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal. Limit your search to
correspondence in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
2. Last year a Mr John Reid served me with a notice of intent to consider a vexatious
declaration with the Information Commissioner. Your department has the onus of
establishing that the IC should make the declaration. Please provide a document listing
explicitly the FOI requests Mr Reid claims as vexatious.
Notice of practical refusal reason
Section 24(1) of the FOI Act provides that a request to an agency may be refused if the
decision maker is satisfied that a practical refusal reason (as set out in section 24AA of the
FOI Act) exists in relation to the request.
I write to advise you that, subject to possible further revision and clarification which would
narrow your request, the Department considers that the work involved in processing your
request in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the
Department from its other operations. This constitutes a ‘practical refusal reason’ under
section 24AA of the FOI Act. On this basis, the Department intends to refuse access to the
documents you have requested.
However, before a decision maker makes a final decision to refuse the request for a practical
refusal reason, 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.
Postal Address: PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849 Fax: +61 2 6271 5776 www.pmc.gov.au ABN: 18 108 001 191
Reasons for intention to refuse your request
In deciding if a practical refusal reason exists, an agency must have regard to the resources
required to perform the following activities specified in section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act:1
• identifying, locating or collating documents within the filing system of the agency;
• examining the documents;
• deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access;
• consulting with other parties;
• redacting exempt material from the documents; and
• notifying an interim or final decision to the applicant.
Other matters may be relevant in deciding if a practical refusal reason exists such as the
staffing resources available to an agency for FOI processing, whether the processing can only
be undertaken by one or more specialist officers in an agency who have competing
responsibilities, the impact that processing may have on other work in an agency including
FOI processing, and whether there is a significant public interest in the documents requested.2
Estimate of time taken to process your request
The Department estimates that there are 113 documents which are potentially relevant to part
1 of your request. These documents would need to be retrieved and reviewed for relevance.
For any document identified as relevant to the request, there would be further work required
to process the request that may include consulting with third parties, deciding whether to
grant, refuse or defer access, redacting any exempt material, and preparing and notifying a
decision. Based on a 10% sample taken from the initial results received, the Department
estimates that it would take approximately 60 hours to process your request.
The Department acknowledges that the processing of requests for access to documents is a
legitimate part of each agency’s functions, and that FOI requests may require the reallocation
of resources within an agency. However, in this case, the Department is not able to reasonably
divert its resources from its other operations to assist in processing this request. In reaching
this view, the Department has had regard to the public interest in providing access to
information but considers that this is outweighed by the competing public interest in the
ability of the Department to undertake its ordinary functions without substantial impairment,
including the processing of other FOI requests.
For the reasons given above, the Department considers that processing your request in its
current form would create a substantial and unreasonable diversion of the Department’s
resources from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed. Revising your
request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more manageable or
explaining in more detail the specific documents you wish to access.
For example, you may wish to consider revising your FOI request in one or more of the
following ways:
1 Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of the FOI Act (FOI Guidelines) – Part 3 [3.116].
2 FOI Guidelines – Part 3 [3 117].
2
• limiting the timeframe;
• narrowing the scope of your request, for example by limiting the types of documents
included; and/or
• providing further specifics of what documents you are seeking.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing:
• withdraw your request;
• make a revised request; or
• tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
No guarantee of access
Please be aware that even if you revise your FOI request to enable it to be processed, there is
still no guarantee that documents will ultimately be released. That is a matter for the decision-
maker to decide in the usual manner after examining the relevant documents. The issue we are
addressing at the moment is whether your FOI request can be processed – not what the
eventual outcome may be if it is processed.
Action required
Section 24AB of the FOI Act provides that you must do one of the following, in writing,
within the next 14 days:
• revise your FOI request;
• indicate that you do not wish to revise it; or
• withdraw the FOI request.
If you do
not do one of the above within the next 14 days, your FOI request will be taken to
have been withdrawn.
If you were to revise your FOI request in a way that adequately addresses the above concerns
and makes it manageable, the Department will recommence processing it.
Calculation of 30 day period
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your FOI request is
not taken into account for the purposes of calculating the 30 day period during which the
Department is required to take all reasonable steps to process your FOI request.
Should you wish to discuss any aspect of your request, please contact the Department by
email at xxx@xxx.xxx.xx or by phone 02 6271 5849, quoting reference number
FOI/2022/019.
Yours sincerely
A/g Senior Adviser
FOI and Privacy Section
28 January 2022
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