Reasons for decision
Material taken into account
In making my decision, I have had regard to the following:
• your freedom of information request dated 29 July 2022;
• the documents at issue;
• the FOI Act, in particular s 22, and;
• the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of
the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines).
Access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted (s 22)
I have found material, being your email address, irrelevant under s 22 of the FOI Act.
Section 22(1)(a)(ii) explains that section 22 applies where access to a document
would disclose information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the
request for access.
Having reviewed the documents at issue, I am of the view that these documents
would ordinarily be releasable in full with no material redacted given that you are
requesting documents concerning your own matters with the OAIC. Accordingly, I do
not consider application of exemption to this material is appropriate.
We note that you have requested removal of this material from the documents
including your personal information, including your email address. I have taken into
account that this material will be published on a public forum, as well as your
specific request for the redaction of this material. Hence, based on the material
before me at this time, I am of the view that this material consisting of your personal
information including your email address, which you are not seeking access to, is
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irrelevant and outside the scope of your request pursuant to s 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI
Act.
On this basis, I have prepared the documents for release by removing irrelevant
material in accordance with section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act.
If you do wish to obtain a copy of the documents without the deletions, please kindly
contact the OAIC through a private email address so that the OAIC can provide the
document to you accordingly.
Conclusion
Please see the following page for information about your review rights and
information about the OAIC’s disclosure log.
Yours sincerely
Margaret Sui
Senior Lawyer
26 August 2022
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If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the
FOI Act. An internal review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of
the OAIC who was not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you
wish to apply for an internal review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There
is no application fee for internal review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the
attention of the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that
my decision should be reviewed.
Applications for internal reviews can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can submit your application by email to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax
on 02 9284 9666.
Further Review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner
and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision (IC
review). If you wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within 60 days.
Your application must provide an address (which can be an email address or fax
number) that we can send notices to, and include a copy of this letter. A request for
IC review can be made in relation to my decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it will usually not be in the interests of
the administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal
review decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the
OAIC. For this reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, and the
Information Commissioner is satisfied that in the interests of administration of the
Act it is desirable that my decision be considered by the AAT, the Information
Commissioner may decide not to undertake an IC review.
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Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the AAT for review
of an FOI decision, you must first have applied for IC review.
Applications for IC review can be submitted online at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR_
Alternatively, you can submit your application to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Or by email to xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on 02 9284 9666.
Accessing your information
If you would like access to the information that we hold about you, please contact
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on the Access our information
page on our website.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish online documents released to
members of the public within 10 days of release, except if they contain personal or
business information that would be unreasonable to publish.
The documents I have decided to release to you contain personal information that
would be unreasonable to publish. As a result, an edited version of the documents
released will be published on our disclosure log.
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