OFFICIAL
OFFICE OF THE HON STEPHEN JONES MP
ASSISTANT TREASURER AND MINISTER FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES
FOI ref: 3222
20 December 2022
Andorra Loom
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Andorra Loom
I refer to your request received on 28 November 2022, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (
FOI
Act), for access to the following:
Consistent with the Freedom of Information Act 1982, I request all correspondence, and associated
briefing material, between the Assistant Treasurer and:
1) Industry Super Australia Pty Ltd;
2) The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Ltd; or
3) The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees.
I am not seeking drafts of the above documents.
I am an authorised decision maker under the FOI Act.
I am writing to tell you that I believe that the work involved in processing your request in its current form
would substantially and unreasonably interfere with the performance of the Minister’s functions due to its
broad scope. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse access to the documents you have requested. However, you have an
opportunity to revise your request before I make a final decision. This is called a ‘request consultation
process’ in section 24AB of the FOI Act.
You have
14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
I decided that a practical refusal reason exists due to the large number of documents identified as potentially
falling within the broad scope of your request.
The Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services holds responsibility for superannuation.
A search for emails with the requested organisations located hundreds of emails plus attachments. Each
email and email attachment will need to be opened and read for relevance. Documents found to be in scope
will then need to be scheduled, closely reviewed for sensitives, third party consultation may need to be
undertaken, edited versions of documents prepared for release and a decision letter drafted. I am satisfied this
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
Telephone: (02) 6277 7230
2
would place an unreasonable burden on the small number of Office staff. I am also satisfied that processing
the request would substantially and unreasonably interfere with the performance of the Minister’s functions.
Request consultation process
You have an opportunity to revise your request. This might mean narrowing the scope of the request to make
it more manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. This will assist the Office
staff to focus on the documents that you are most interested in, saving time and resources.
Examples of possible revisions include:
•
Reducing your request to one organisation.
•
Providing specific information a document must contain to be in scope.
•
Providing a narrow date range.
More than one revision type is likely to be needed to sufficiently refine the scope of your request. Even if
you follow all of the above suggestions, it is still possible that processing the request will be a substantial and
unreasonable interference with the performance of the Minister’s functions.
If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal grounds outlined above, we
will recommence processing it. Please note that the time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your
request is not taken into account for the purposes of the 30-day time limit for processing your request.
What you need to do
You must contact us within 14 days from day after you receive this notice to:
• withdraw your request
• make a revised request
• tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The Treasury FOI team is available to help you during the consultation period by phone on (02) 6263 2800
or by email to xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx except between 24 December 2022 and 2 January 2023. If you do not
respond to the FOI team within the 14 days, your request will be taken to be withdrawn.
Yours sincerely
Tom Iggulden
Senior Adviser
