Reference:
FOI15/11
Contact:
FOI Team
Telephone:
(02) 6215 1783
e-mail:
xxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Mr Jackson Gothe-Snape
Right to Know
via email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx;
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape,
Freedom of Information Request – FOI15/11
Thank you for your email to the Department of Finance (Finance) in which you sought
access to the following documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
Can you please provide records of all bookings of COMCAR since 1 July 2009 in a
machine readable format, preferably CSV or XLS, with the following fields:
-Account Name
-City
-Date
-From
-To
-Start time
-Finish time
-Amount
The statutory period for processing your request commences from the day after Finance
received your request. Your request was received by Finance on 4 February 2015.
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a notice, under subsection 24AB(2) of the
FOI Act, which outlines Finance’s intention to refuse your request. This is due to the work
involved in processing the request having been estimated to substantially and unreasonably
divert the resources of the agency from its other operations.
Assessment of the volume of material that may be relevant to your request
In considering your request, Finance acknowledges that the processing of requests for access
to documents is a legitimate part of each agency’s functions and FOI requests may require
reallocation of resources within an agency.
The decision-maker, Ms Cheryl-anne Moy, First Assistant Secretary, Ministerial and
Parliamentary Services Division, notes that Finance has identified a large amount of material
relating to the subject-matter of your request. In considering your request, Ms Moy has also
given careful consideration to the public interest in access to information held by the
department and the resources which would need to be employed to provide access in
accordance with your request.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner Guidelines (OAIC Guidelines)
prescribes that:
When assessing whether a practical refusal reason exists, the agency or minister can
have regard to any relevant matter, but must have regard to the resources required to
perform the following activities:
•
the identification, location or collation of the documents within the filing system
of the agency or minister;
•
the decision making process, including such activities as:
-examination of the document;
-consultations;
•
the preparation of the decision and documents including:
-editing of exempt material to grant access to the remainder of a document;
-copying documents;
•
notifying the applicant of any interim or final decision on the request.
Taking into account the factors listed above, it has been estimated that processing this
request would take a substantial amount of time and would divert staff from performing
their normal duties. As such, Ms Moy has concluded that identifying, consulting on and
assessing the documents sought would involve a very considerable amount of work. This
work would unreasonably interfere with the performance of the functions of the department,
a practical refusal reason in terms of subparagraph 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the Act.
Clarifying the terms of your request
When a request involves a practical refusal reason, an unreasonable diversion of resources,
the department, in line with subsection 24(1)(a) of the FOI Act, undertakes a request
consultation process. This provides you with an opportunity to clarify the terms and, where
appropriate, to refine the scope of your request.
It may be that there are specific elements within the request subject-matter that you are
particularly interested in that could be isolated with a view to narrowing the terms of the
request.
Publically available information
Although not in the form or the details you requested, the Parliamentary Entitlements six-
monthly report contains information about parliamentarians and former parliamentarians’
expenditure on COMCAR. The six-monthly report is available at Finance’s website,
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/parliamentarians-reporting. You may wish to
consider the publically available information before deciding whether to continue with your
FOI request
