link to page 1
OFFICIAL
Freedom of Information (FOI) request
Notice of Decision
Reference: FOI/2022/107
To: Michael Leary
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Leary
I refer to your email of 4 April 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).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request for access under the
FOI Act.
Scope of request
You set out your request in the fol owing terms:
Please provide information re the Governments position on implementing the New World Order
and the WEF Great Reset.
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Material taken into account
In reaching my decision I referred to the fol owing:
• the terms of your request
• searches undertaken by the Department
• the FOI Act
• the FOI Guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner
1 (the Guidelines)
1 s 93A of the FOI Act
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
1
link to page 2
OFFICIAL
Decision
I have decided to refuse your request under section 24A(1)(b)(i ) of the FOI Act on the grounds that al
reasonable steps have been taken to find the requested documents of your request and I am satisfied
they do not exist.
Reason for decision
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that no documents exist are set out below.
1. Documents cannot be found or do not exist
Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act provides that:
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
(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.
In determining what the FOI Act means with respect to ‘al reasonable steps’, I have had regard to the
Guidelines which discuss the meaning of ‘reasonable’ in s 24A(1)(a) and that it is not designed to be
constructed so as to go beyond the limit assigned by reason, not to be extravagant or excessive,
rather to be moderate and of such an effort as is judged to be appropriate or suitable to the
circumstances
2. The Department has conducted key-word searches of multiple records systems, including legacy and
paper file systems for documents relating to the request. Fol owing review of these results, there were
no documents related to the terms of the request, being for records about the
Governments position
on implementing the New World Order and the WEF Great Reset.
Accordingly, I am refusing your request for access as al reasonable steps have been taken and I am
satisfied that documents do not exist.
Other information
The Department has recently released correspondence it holds from the World Economic Forum.
These documents can be found on the Department’s
Disclosure Log.
Review rights
If you disagree with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information Commissioner
review of the decision.
2 3.88 of the FOI Guidelines
2
OFFICIAL
Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the Department for an internal review of
my decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days after the date of this letter,
please attach reasons why you believe review of the decision is necessary.
Applications for review should be sent to
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in
writing within 60 days after the date of this letter.
More information about Information Commissioner review is available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/information-commissioner-
review/.
FOI Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, please let us know what we could
have done better. We may be able to rectify the problem. If you are not satisfied with our response,
you can make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner. A complaint to the
Information Commissioner must be made in writing.
More information about complaints is available on the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/make-an-
foi-complaint/. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your requests, you can contact the FOI Section by email at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx. Yours sincerely
Petra Gartmann
Assistant Secretary
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
24 May 2022
3
