Our reference: FOI 21/22-1417
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
ndis.gov.au
6 May 2022
Lesley
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Lesley
Freedom of Information request — Notification of Decision
Thank you for your correspondence of 13 April 2022, in which you requested access to
documents held by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request.
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the fol owing documents:
1. Has the NDIA/NDIS been impacted by the recent (Mar-Apr 22), sustained
Atlassian services outage across products such as Jira, Confluence, etc?
2. If so, for how long and to what degree?
3. Have NDIA's operations been impacted, diminished or negatively impacted in any
way?
4. Has participant's data, services, support or privacy been impacted in any way?
5. In accordance with recent critical infrastructure legislation and national
cybersecurity reporting obligations, has the NDIA reported or notified any other
Commonwealth/State Agencies of any disruption, breach or exploitation?
Decision on access to documents
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act. My decision on your
request and the reasons for my decision are set out below.
I have decided to refuse your request for access under section 24A of the FOI Act. The
reasons for my decision are set out below.
In reaching my decision, I took the fol owing into account:
your correspondence outlining the scope of your request
the FOI Act
the FOI Guidelines published under section 93A of the FOI Act
consultation with relevant officers of the NDIA
the NDIA’s operating environment and functions.
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Reasons for decision
Refuse a request for access (section 24A)
Section 24A of the FOI Act provides that an agency may refuse a request for access to a
document if al reasonable steps have been taken to find the document and the agency is
satisfied that the document cannot be found or does not exist.
The relevant line areas have conducted searches of the NDIA’s document management
systems and made enquiries with NDIA staff who could be expected to identify documents
that fal within the scope of your request. These searches and enquiries have revealed that
the NDIA is not in possession of documents matching the scope of your request. This is
because the NDIA only uses the cloud version of Atlassian products for OpsGenie and
status page. No outage was observed for these systems. The NDIA does not use the cloud
version of Atlassian for al other Atlassian products including Jira and Confluence. As we
have not had any disruption to the services we use, we have not been required to report on,
or notify, any other agencies.
I am satisfied that al reasonable steps have been taken to locate the documents you have
requested and that the documents do not exist. I have, therefore, decided to refuse access
to your request in accordance with section 24A(1)(b)(i ) of the FOI Act.
Rights of review
Your rights to seek a review of my decision, or lodge a complaint, are set out at Attachment A.
Should you have any enquiries concerning this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me
by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Carolyn
Assistant Director FOI
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
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Attachment A
Your review rights
Internal Review
The FOI Act gives you the right to apply for an internal review of this decision. The review will
be conducted by a different person to the person who made the original decision.
If you wish to seek an internal review of the decision, you must apply for the review, in writing,
within 30 days of receipt of this letter.
No particular form is required for an application for internal review, but to assist the review
process, you should clearly outline your grounds for review (that is, the reasons why you
disagree with the decision). Applications for internal review can be lodged by email to
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx or sent by post to:
Freedom of Information Section
Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch
Government Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
Review by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
The FOI Act also gives you the right to apply to the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) to seek a review of this decision.
If you wish to have the decision reviewed by the OAIC, you may apply for the review, in writing,
or by using the online merits review form available on the OAIC’s website at www.oaic.gov.au,
within 60 days of receipt of this letter.
Applications for review can be lodged with the OAIC in the fol owing ways:
Online:
www.oaic.gov.au
Post:
GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Email:
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Phone:
1300 363 992 (local cal charge)
Complaints to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or the
Commonwealth Ombudsman
You may complain to either the Commonwealth Ombudsman or the OAIC about actions taken
by the NDIA in relation to your request. The Ombudsman will consult with the OAIC before
investigating a complaint about the handling of an FOI request.
Your complaint to the OAIC can be directed to the contact details identified above. Your
complaint to the Ombudsman can be directed to:
Phone:
1300 362 072 (local cal charge)
Email:
xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Your complaint should be in writing and should set out the grounds on which it is considered
that the actions taken in relation to the request should be investigated Division.
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