Your Ref
Our Ref
LEX 215
Alex Pentland
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Pentland,
Your Freedom of Information request - charge
I refer to your request, received by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment
(department) on 18 February 2022, for access under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to the fol owing documents:
al correspondents or records of communication between the Department of Education,
Skil s and Employment and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
relating to the draft national curriculum refered to in this statement
(https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/roaring-back-my-priorities-schools-students-return-
classrooms)
Fol owing correspondence with the department on 1 March 2022, you clarified that your
request is for:
al correspondence or records of communication between the department and ACARA in
relation to the draft national curriculum published in April 2021 (referred to as the ‘ACARA’s
April draft’ in Minister Tudge’s statement)
Preliminary assessment of the charge
Under the FOI Act, I have decided that you are liable to pay a charge for the processing of
your request. My preliminary assessment of the charge is $65.00, calculated as follows:
Search and retrieval time: 3 hours, at $15.00 per hour
$45.00
Decision-making time, after deduction of 5 hours*: 1 hour, at $20.00 per hour
$20.00
TOTAL
$65.00
GPO Box 9880, Canberra ACT 2601 | Phone 1300 488 064 | www.dese.gov.au | ABN 12 862 898 150
*The FOI Act provides that the first five hours of decision-making time are free of charge and this is reflected in
the calculation.
I am advised that the department has in its possession a small number of pages relevant to
your request.
Required action
If you would like the department to continue processing your request, you must notify the
department in writing within 30 days of receiving this notice that you:
• agree to pay the charge
• wish to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed, should be reduced or
not imposed or both or
• withdraw your request.
If you do not respond within 30 days, your request wil be taken to have been withdrawn by
the operation of the FOI Act.
As outlined in our covering email to you, if you decide to pay the charge and proceed with
your request, the department wil require an extension of time of 21 days to process your
request.
Option - pay the charge and agree to the extension of time
Charge
As the charge exceeds $25 but is less than $100, you are required to pay a deposit of $20
within 30 days of receiving this notice. You may elect to pay the charge in full at this point.
Payment can be made by credit card by completing the attached credit card authorisation
and sending a scanned copy to
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Please note that the charge is a fee for processing your request, not a payment for access to
documents. Payment of the charge does not guarantee you access to any or al of the
documents you have requested. Access to documents wil be considered by the decision
maker in accordance with the FOI Act.
Option - seek reduction or non-imposition of the charge
If you want to ask the department to reduce or not to impose the charge, you should tel us
why and give us evidence to support your reasons. You may wish to tell us:
• whether paying the charge would cause you financial hardship and/or
• whether access to the documents is in the general public interest or in the interest
of a substantial section of the public.
We must take these matters into account in deciding whether or not to reduce or not
impose the charge.
Time limits for processing your request
Under the FOI Act, the time limit for processing your request is suspended from today until
the day fol owing payment of the charge (in full or the required deposit) or, if applicable, the
day following a decision not to impose the charge.
To assist you, I have set out the relevant section of the FOI Act at
Attachment A.
Further assistance
As an alternative, you may wish to consider revising the scope of your request. If you would
like to discuss this, please email xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Alison
Authorised decision maker
Department of Education, Skil s and Employment
17 March 2022
Attachment A
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Charge
Section 29(1) of the FOI Act provides that, where the department decides that an applicant is
liable to pay a charge in respect of a request for access to a document, or the provision of
access to a document, the department must give the applicant written notice. The notice
must state, among other things, that the applicant must within 30 days after the notice was
given tell the department in writing that the applicant:
• agrees to pay the charge
• wishes to contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed or should be reduced
or not imposed or both or
• wishes to withdraw the request.
Under section 29(2) of the FOI Act, if the applicant does not do one of these things within 30
days, the request wil be taken to have been withdrawn.
Attachment B
Credit Card Authorisation
Use this form to pay a Freedom of Information charge by credit card
Applicant's details
Name
Phone number
Credit card details
Credit card type
Card holder's name
Credit card number
Expiry date
CCV number
Amount
Signature
Date
Privacy statement
Your personal information is col ected by the Department of Education, Skil s and Employment for the
purposes of processing the payment of a charge imposed under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 and related purposes. If you do not provide some or all of the information requested, the department
may be unable to process your credit card payment. Your personal information may be disclosed to
other parties where you have agreed, or where it is otherwise permitted by law. The department's
Privacy Policy, including information about how to make a complaint and access to and correction of
your personal information, can be found at
https://www.dese.gov.au/privacy.
Document Outline
