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Good afternoon Mr Hollingworth

Thank you for your request submitted to the Attorney-General via the Right To Know platform.

We note that this request is identical to one you submitted to the Attorney-General's Department via the Right To Know platform. Can you please confirm whether you intended to submit the same request to both entities?

As these requests are duplicative and will render the same results (being documents provided by the department to the Attorney-General's Office), in the interest of administrative efficiency, we would be grateful if you would consider withdrawing one of the requests.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Freedom of Information & Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [email address]

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Hi David

Thank you for your response. We understand that you intentionally made duplicate requests to the department and to the office and will proceed with processing both accordingly.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information & Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [email address]

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OFFICIAL

Good afternoon Mr Hollingworth

Thank you for your FOI request to the Office of the Attorney-General (the
office). Correspondence for your request to the office will be managed by
the department under administrative support arrangements with the office.

We write to acknowledge your request and seek your agreement to exclude
certain information from your request.

Your request

Your request is for:

Advice or briefing material provided by the Attorney-General's Department
to the Attorney-General's Office in relation to the use of AI bots
potentially being used by foreign actors to create an overload of
anonymous or vexatious FOI requests.

We received your FOI request on 3 September 2025 and the 30 day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the following day. A
decision is therefore due by 3 October 2025. However this may be extended
under the FOI Act if consultation with third parties are required or for
other reasons. We will advise you if this applies.

Request to exclude certain information from the scope of your request

The department seeks your agreement to exclude the following categories of
information from the documents in your request:

duplicates of documents that are in scope,

personal information of members of the public,

contact details for teams, internal to the department/office and other
agencies, and

personal information belonging to officers of the department/office and
other government agencies (such as names, email addresses and telephone
numbers).

Excluding the information listed above enables us to process your request
more efficiently. If you agree to the above exclusions, the names of
senior executive officers will be released where they are present in the
documents and do not otherwise attract an FOI exemption. In addition,
publicly available telephone numbers and email addresses will generally be
released.

Please note that, with some exceptions (such as personal information),
documents released under the FOI Act may later be published online on the
department's disclosure log at
[1]http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection....

Next steps

Please respond to this email by 18 September 2025 to confirm whether you
agree the exclusion of the above information.

If you would like to discuss this further please contact the FOI Team by
phoning (02) 6141 6666 or emailing [2][email address].

Kind regards

Freedom of Information & Privacy

Attorney-General’s Department

Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [3][email address]

OFFICIAL
The Attorney-General’s Department may collect your personal information
where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, our
functions, including those under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) and the Privacy Act 1988. We may collect your name, email address and
telephone number so that we can contact you about your request or privacy
complaint. If your request concerns accessing or correcting your personal
information, we will collect the minimum amount of evidence necessary to
verify your identity. We hold personal information in accordance with the
Privacy Act and our privacy policy. If you have an enquiry or complaint
about your privacy, please contact the Privacy Officer on 02 6141 6666 or
via e-mail [email address]. 
If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately by
return email and delete all copies. If this email or any attachments have
been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver of any
confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of information in the
email or attachments.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]

OFFICIAL

Dear Mr Hollingworth

The Office of the Attorney-General (office) has identified it requires
further time to deal with your request under s 15AB of the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) as your request is one of a number of requests
the office is concurrently processing with overlapping scope and the work
is complex and voluminous. The requests all relate to FOI reform and the
office does not wish to combine these requests for the purposes of a
practical refusal. Additional time will allow the office to process your
request and provide the decision to you.

The office has a limited number of staff available for identifying,
reviewing and deciding on the documents’ relevance to the requests. These
ministerial advisers are engaged in the FOI reform work which has
generated these requests, and the other priority work of the
Attorney-General and this work cannot be deferred or designated elsewhere.

As part of administrative support requested by the office, we have
submitted a 30 day extension for your request (AGOFOI25/410). You made
this request on 3 September 2025 for advice or briefing material provided
by the Attorney-General's Department to the Attorney-General's Office in
relation to the use of AI bots potentially being used by foreign actors to
create an overload of anonymous or vexatious FOI requests.

The OAIC may contact you in relation to this extension request (OAIC ref
RQ25/06046). A decision maker at the OAIC will take into account any
comments you may wish to make when deciding whether to grant the
extension.

We are continuing to support the office to finalise a decision by the
requested extension date.

We expect the OAIC will notify you of its decision in relation to the
extension of time request in due course.

Joanna Baker

Assistant Director

Freedom of Information and Privacy Section
Attorney-General’s Department

T: (02) 6141 6666 | E: [1][email address]

For information on how to make an FOI Request see
[2]https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect...

OFFICIAL

The Attorney-General’s Department may collect your personal information
where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, our
functions, including those under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) and the Privacy Act 1988. We may collect your name, email address and
telephone number so that we can contact you about your request or privacy
complaint. If your request concerns accessing or correcting your personal
information, we will collect the minimum amount of evidence necessary to
verify your identity. We hold personal information in accordance with the
Privacy Act and our privacy policy. If you have an enquiry or complaint
about your privacy, please contact the Privacy Officer on 02 6141 6666 or
via e-mail [email address]. 
If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately by
return email and delete all copies. If this email or any attachments have
been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver of any
confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of information in the
email or attachments.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect...

Our ref: RQ25/06046

Agency ref: AGOFOI25/410

Respondent: Attorney General’s Department, by email: [1][email address]

Applicant: David Hollingworth:
[2][FOI #13574 email]

Dear Parties

I refer to a request for an extension of time made under s 15AB of the FOI
Act.

Please find attached a decision in response to this request.

Yours sincerely

[3][IMG]   Early Resolution Team

Freedom of Information Case Management branch

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Sydney | Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001

P 1300 363 992   E [4][email address]

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[FOI #13574 email]
3. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
4. mailto:[email address]

OFFICIAL

Dear Mr Hollingsworth,

15AA Request for extension of time

Your FOI request was received by the Attorney-General’s Office (office) on
3 September 2025 and the 30-day statutory period for processing your
request commenced on the following day. The statutory due date for
decision is currently today 3 October 2025.

As identified in our email to you on 2 October 2025, the office has
identified it requires further time to deal with your request as your
request is one of a number of requests the office is concurrently
processing with overlapping scope and the work is complex and voluminous.
The requests all relate to FOI reform and the office does not wish to
combine these requests for the purposes of a practical refusal. Additional
time will allow the office to process your request and provide the
decision to you.

The office has a limited number of staff available for identifying,
reviewing and deciding on the documents’ relevance to the requests. These
ministerial advisers are engaged in the FOI reform work which has
generated these requests, and the other priority work of the
Attorney-General and this work cannot be deferred or designated elsewhere.

Following the OAIC decision to decline a 15AB extension of time, we seek
your agreement to a 30 day extension of time to process this request under
s 15AA of the FOI Act. This would mean that a decision about your request
would be due on 3 November 2025.

If we are in a position to make a decision earlier than this date, we will
endeavour to do so. The statutory period may also be extended if we need
to consult third parties or for other reasons permitted under the FOI Act.
We will advise you if this happens.

Next steps

Please respond to this email by COB today, 3 October 2025 to confirm if
you agree to this extension of time and to the exclusion of the above
information. If you agree to the extension, we will notify the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) of your agreement under s
15AA of the FOI Act, including your name and contact details.

If you would like to discuss this further please contact the FOI Team by
phoning (02) 6141 6666 or emailing [1][email address].

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information & Privacy

Attorney-General’s Department

Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [2][email address]

OFFICIAL

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]