fa 220800298 practical refusal notice.pdf

15 August 2022
BE
BY EMAIL:  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:  FA 22/08/00298
File Number:
OBJ2022/21284
Dear BE
I  refer to your email dated 4 August 2022, in which you requested access to documents held by
the Department of Home  Affairs (the Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the FOI Act).
You have requested access to the following:
I seek access under the FOI Act 1982 to Question Time briefs (however described).
This request is limited to Question Time briefs for the 47th Parliament (ie Question
Time briefs prepared for 27 – 28 July and 1-4 August).

I also request a copy of the Department’s current index of Question Time briefs.

Duplicate copies of the same document are not required, although different or
updated versions of a document are. If a document contains tracked changes or
comments, it is requested that the document be provided in a form where all tracked
changes and comments are visible.

Names and contact details for departmental staff below the SES level are not required
and can be treated as irrelevant under s22 of the Act for the purposes of this request.
Intention to refuse request
I am writing to  tell you that I  intend to refuse your request on the basis that a practical refusal
reason exists. However, before I  make a final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to
revise your request to remove the practical refusal reason. This is called a ‘request consultation
process’. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Power to refuse request
Section 24 of the FOI  Act provides that if the Department is satisfied that a practical refusal
reason exists  in  relation to a  request, the Department must undertake a consultation process
with you, and if, after that consultation process, the Department remains satisfied that the
practical refusal reason stil   exists,  the Department may  refuse to give you access to the
documents subject to the request.

6 Chan Street Belconnen ACT 2617
PO Box 25 Belconnen ACT 2616 • Telephone: 02 6264 1111 • www.homeaffairs.gov.au

Practical refusal
A practical refusal reason exists under section 24AA of the FOI  Act if  either (or both) of the
following applies:
(1)(a)(i) the work  involved in the processing of the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the Department from its other operations
(1)(b)   the request does not satisfy the requirement in section 15(2)(b) of the FOI  Act,
which requires you to provide such information concerning the document you are
seeking access to, to enable the Department to be able to identify it.
I consider that the work involved in the processing of the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the Department from its other operations, and accordingly
that practical refusal reasons exist under section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act.
Reasons for practical refusal
The Department has made a preliminary assessment of the documents that would be captured
by your request.
There are 80  current Question Time Briefs (QTBs).  As QTBs are updated daily during sitting
periods, one QTB could easily  have up to 20  historical versions. Therefore, there could be
around 1,600 documents potentially falling within the scope of your request.
While the Department has identified that it may hold 1,600 potentially relevant documents in its
systems,  the relevant business area estimates  that it would take approximately  60 hours
actually to search for and retrieve each of those relevant documents.
A further 27 hours - based on an average of one minute per document - would be required to
collate and create a schedule of the 1,600 potentially relevant documents.
In the event that the  Department were to  continue to  process your request, a decision would
need to be made on access to those documents. Based on a one-in-ten sample, I estimate that
the average length of each document is 4.5 pages. Therefore, I estimate the total combined
page length of  documents captured by  your request would be 1,600 x  4.5 = 7,200 pages.
Estimating that the decision maker would require at least three minutes to review and assess
each page for relevant exemptions, I calculate that it would take at least 360 hours to complete
a decision on access to the documents potentially identified as being relevant to your request.
As such, a minimum total estimated time of 60 + 27 + 360 = 447 hours would be required to
process this request.
This estimated processing time disregards time that may be needed to undertake consultations
with other agencies  to  inform the assessment process,  where  QTBs  were developed in
consultation with those agencies.
I  am satisfied that the Department would  be required to divert significant resources from its
current operations in order to identify, locate and collate the documents held by the Department,
and to make a decision on access to those documents. This diversion would result in a significant
drain on the resources of the area within the Department that would be required to process this
request.
I consider that this would result in this request imposing both a substantial and an unreasonable
diversion of resources of the Department from its other operations and that a practical refusal
reason exists in relation to this request.
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
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The Department proposes the following revised scope of your request:

Final version of each QTB for the 47th Parliament as it was last provided to the
Ministers’ Offices by the Department.
Under section 24AB(6) of the FOI Act, you have 14 days to do one of the following:
•  withdraw your request;
•  make a revised request;
•  indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.
If  you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period (14 days)
or you do not consult the contact person listed below during this period, your request wil   be
taken to have been withdrawn in accordance with section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act.
Contact
Should you wish to revise your request or have any questions in relation to this process, please
do not hesitate to contact me at: xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.

Yours sincerely

[Signed electronically]

Guy
Position no. 60103474
FOI Officer | Freedom of Information Section
FOI and Records Management Branch
Data Division | Strategy and National Resilience Group
Department of Home Affairs

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