Our ref:
FOI23/093; CM23/2845
3 March 2023
Stephen
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Stephen
Freedom of Information Request FOI22/093 – Decision letter
The purpose of this letter is to give you a decision about your request for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) which you submitted to the Attorney-General's Department
(the department).
Your request
On 3 February 2023, you requested access to:
the report provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC under paragraph 11.1(da) of
the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about the legal services expenditure and legal work of the
Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly because there is no publicly accessible
record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures on the website
of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman for the 2021-2022 financial year.
On 16 February 2023, the department acknowledged your request.
A decision in relation to your request is due on 6 March 2022.
My decision
I am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to freedom of
information requests made to the department.
I have identified 1 document that fal s within the scope of your request. I did this by making inquiries of
staff likely to be able to identify relevant documents and arranging for comprehensive searches of relevant
departmental electronic and hard copy holdings.
In making my decision regarding access to the relevant documents, I have taken the fol owing material into
account:
• the terms of your request
• the content of the documents identified as within scope of your request
• the provisions of the FOI Act
• the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act
(the Guidelines).
I have decided to grant access in full to the 1 document you have requested.
Additional information
Your review rights under the FOI Act are set out at
Attachment A to this letter.
The schedule of documents at
Attachment B sets out brief information about each document within the
scope of your request and my decision in relation to access to each of those documents.
The documents to which I have decided to grant access under the FOI Act are at
Attachment C.
Questions about this decision
If you wish to discuss this decision, the FOI case officer for this matter is Sam, who can be reached on
(02) 6141 6666 or by email to
xxx@xx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Michael Johnson
Assistant Secretary
Office of Legal Services Coordination
Attachments
Attachment A:
Review rights
Attachment B: Schedule of documents
Attachment C: Documents
Freedom of Information request FOI23/093 – Decision letter
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Attachment A - FOI Review rights
If you are dissatisfied with the decision of the Attorney-General’s Department (the department), you
may apply for internal review or Information Commissioner review of the decision.
The department encourages applicants to consider seeking internal review as a first step as it may
provide a more rapid resolution of your concerns.
Internal review
Under section 54 of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), applications for internal review
must be made in writing within 30 days of the date of the decision letter, and be lodged in one of
the following ways:
email: xxx@xx.xxx.xx
post: Freedom of Information and Privacy Section
Strategy and Governance Branch
Attorney-General’s Department
3-5 National Circuit BARTON ACT 2600
An officer of the department other than the officer who made the original decision will complete the
internal review within 30 days of receipt of your request.
Providing reasons you believe internal review of the decision is necessary will facilitate the
completion of the internal review.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in
writing within 60 days of the date of the decision letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
online: https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR 10
email: xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
More information about Information Commissioner review is available on the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-
information/reviews-and-complaints/information-commissioner-review/.
FOI Review rights
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