PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
14 April 2022
Our reference: LEX 67446
Ms Olivia Good
Only by email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ms Good
Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your request for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the FOI Act). You requested access to:
I would like to request that documents regarding Services Australia's internal
processes for assessing disability and DSP eligibility be made known. Currently the
processes are very opaque.
Timeframe
Your request was received by Services Australia (the agency) on 8 April 2022 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date.
Therefore, a decision from us is currently due by 9 May 2022.
Request for extension of time
I am currently consulting with the business area to identify and retrieve documents in relation
to your request. Due to this consultation process, the processing of your request is taking
longer than anticipated. Therefore, I respectfully request that you agree to extend the
processing time of your request by an additional 15 days under section 15AA of the FOI Act.
If you agree to the extension of time, the due date for a decision on your request
would be Tuesday 24 May 2022.
I would appreciate if you could consider this request and send your reply email by close of
business 19 April 2022 t
o xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx advising whether you
agree to extend the processing time by an additional 15 days, by stating ‘I agree’.
Please note this period may be further extended if we need to consult third parties or for
other reasons. We wil advise you if this happens.
Charges
The agency wil advise you if a charge is payable to process your request and the amount of
any such charge as soon as practicable. No charge is payable for providing a person with
their own personal information.
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Your Address
The FOI Act requires you to provide us with an address to which we can send notices to. You
have advised your electronic address is
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx. We
wil send all notices and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as
possible if you wish correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address
changes. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, correspondence and notices
wil continue to be sent to the address specified above.
Administrative Release of Documents
The agency has administrative access arrangements ('the arrangements') for the release of
certain documents without the need for a formal FOI request. Unless you advise us
otherwise, in processing your request we may provide you with documents under these
arrangements where appropriate. The arrangements do not extend to information or
materials of third parties. You wil be notified when documents are released to you under the
arrangements.
Disclosure Log
Please note information released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log on
the agency's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this publication, however it is
subject to certain exceptions, including where publication of personal, business, professional
or commercial information would be unreasonable.
Exclusion of junior staff details
The agency is working towards ensuring that all staff have a choice about whether they
provide their full name, personal logon identifiers and direct contact details in response to
public enquiries. Where such details are included in the scope of a request, this may add to
processing time and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us otherwise, we wil
assume that these details are out of scope of your request and they wil be redacted under
section 22 of the FOI Act.
Further assistance
If you have any questions please email
xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Patricia
FOI Registration Officer
Freedom of Information Team
Information Access Branch | Legal Services Division
Services Australia
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