Good afternoon Joyce,

On 8 October 2025, the Australian National University (the University) received your request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).

The University has taken your request to be as follows:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Your request has been assigned the case number 202500253.

Processing Timeframe

The statutory time frame for processing your request is 30 calendar days from day after the date your request was received by the University. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 7 November 2025.

This period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties, impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you in writing if this happens.

We will contact you using the email address you provided. Please advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact. If you have any questions regarding your request, please feel free to contact the FOI Team via the functional email [ANU request email].

The FOI Team’s workload is currently at very high levels due to the unprecedented volume of FOI requests.

We are using our best endeavors to process all requests expeditiously however there may be some slippage due to the current workload. We will keep in touch with you and advise if there are any significant delays, and will, if necessary, seek extensions as permitted by the Act.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Joyce Mayer <[FOI #13820 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 8 October 2025 4:02 PM
To: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

[You don't often get email from [FOI #13820 email]. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentific... ]

Dear Australian National University,

I am seeking copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.

Yours faithfully,

Joyce Mayer

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #13820 email]

Is [ANU request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests to Australian National University? If so, please contact us using this form:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Good evening Joyce,

We refer to your below request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

You requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.
I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Update on your request

• Staff have conducted a preliminary search for the information, and have identified at least 176 separate calendar entries that would fall in scope of your request, as currently worded.
o There are some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 228 calendar entries altogether.
o The conversion of each of those 176 calendar entries into a format suitable for processing and review of the contents is yet to be complete – as we would like you to consider refining your request (see below).
o Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).

Refinement sought

Reasoning

Because of the volume of material sought, we believe that processing your request according to its current broad wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:
• as stated above, there are at least 176 calendar entries in scope currently;
• using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 14.66 hours just to retrieve and convert the 176 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments);
• after all the calendar entries and their attachments have been retrieved and converted into the appropriate format, a review of all the documents would be required which, at a conservative estimate, would take at least five minutes per page on average (this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation;
• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.

Rough Calendar Entry Types

To assist with any refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 176 entries to ascertain their contents. The rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = 17
Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = 20
Regular monthly meetings = 3
One-off meetings, events or calls = 55
Team meetings = 1
Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = 8
Staff leave entries = 8
Groups, Boards or Committees = 16
Reminders = 4
Hard to categorise at face value = 32

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry you are looking for?

If yes, please let us know as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this coming Sunday 2 November 2025, so that we can engage with you on the Monday if we have any follow-up questions.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 15 October 2025 9:22 AM
To: 'Joyce Mayer' <[FOI #13820 email]>
Cc: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Acknowledgement - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Good afternoon Joyce,

On 8 October 2025, the Australian National University (the University) received your request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).

The University has taken your request to be as follows:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Your request has been assigned the case number 202500253.

Processing Timeframe

The statutory time frame for processing your request is 30 calendar days from day after the date your request was received by the University. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 7 November 2025.

This period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties, impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you in writing if this happens.

We will contact you using the email address you provided. Please advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact. If you have any questions regarding your request, please feel free to contact the FOI Team via the functional email [ANU request email].

The FOI Team’s workload is currently at very high levels due to the unprecedented volume of FOI requests.

We are using our best endeavors to process all requests expeditiously however there may be some slippage due to the current workload. We will keep in touch with you and advise if there are any significant delays, and will, if necessary, seek extensions as permitted by the Act.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Joyce Mayer <[FOI #13820 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 8 October 2025 4:02 PM
To: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

[You don't often get email from [FOI #13820 email]. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentific... ]

Dear Australian National University,

I am seeking copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.

Yours faithfully,

Joyce Mayer

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #13820 email]

Is [ANU request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests to Australian National University? If so, please contact us using this form:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Good evening Joyce,

Thank you very much for coming back to us regarding request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

For clarity, your originally requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.
I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Your refinement on Sunday 2 November 2025 changed the scope of the request:

“… please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September 2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.”

Update on your refinement

• Your current refinement narrows your request to encompass at least 90 entries of the original entries identified.
• There are still some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 102 calendar entries altogether.
• Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).
• The above figures do not take into account any additional calendar entries on the weekdays 10 and 11 September 2025. Because the average number of entries over the time span 12-22 September 2025 is 6.9 per day, we can conservatively bring the estimated total number of entries over the entire 10-22 September 2025 period to take into account approximately 13 entries over 10-11 September 2025. This takes the estimated total to 103 entries over the entire request timeframe.

We acknowledge that you have reduced your request timeframe from 22 days down to 13 days – lowering the total minimum number of entries from 176 to approximately 103, so thank you for that.

Refinement still sought

Reasoning

Because there is still a significant volume of material sought, and due to the lack of specification about what specific types of calendar entries you are after, we still believe that processing your request according to its refined, but still broad, wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:

• As stated above, there are at approximately 103 calendar entries likely to be in scope of your refined request.
• Using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 8.58 hours just to retrieve and convert the estimated 103 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments).
• To provide you with more of an idea of the level of work involved after we have collected and collated the documents, we estimate at least 19.16 further hours of processing would be required (this would involve a review of all the documents and their attachments, and would take, at a conservative estimate, at least five minutes per page on average. As stated in our email to you last week, this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation. This brings the minimum number of hours to process the request (from collating the documents to final reviews and at least one consultation) to at least 27.74 hours.
• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval also confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.
• Specifying exactly what type of calendar entries you are seeking would help us process your request not just in the collation of the material but also in the processing/review of the material. As it stands, due to the varied nature of all the different entries, multiple consultees would need to be contacted about the release of any information, and multiple different sections of the FOI Act would need to be thoroughly considered (and perhaps weighed against the public interest) when reviewing the material.

Rough Calendar Entry Types for Refined Request

To assist with any further refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 90 entries to ascertain their contents. Of the 90 entries identified so far, the rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = at least 6

Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = at least 10

Regular monthly meetings = at least 2

One-off meetings, events or calls = at least 30

Team meetings = at least 1

Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = at least 10

Staff leave entries = at least 4

Groups, Boards or Committees = at least 11

Reminders = at least 1

Hard to categorise at face value = at least 15

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request further to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry – or type of entries – you are looking for? Another example of refining your request: were you also interested in all the attachments to calendar entries?

If yes, please get back to us as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this Wednesday 5 November 2025, so that we can engage with you over the following days.

If you cannot refine your request any further, we may need to work with you to consider other mechanisms under the FOI Act – be they charging for this request, an agreed 30-day extension, or any other mechanism that can result in a clear decision for you.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Joyce Mayer <[FOI #13820 email]>
Sent: Sunday, 2 November 2025 8:42 PM
To: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Update + Refinement Sought - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Dear Freedom of Information,

Due to a glitch the previous response did not display. To refine the scope, please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September 2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.

Yours sincerely,

Joyce Mayer

-----Original Message-----

Good evening Joyce,

We refer to your below request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

You requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Update on your request

• Staff have conducted a preliminary search for the information, and have identified at least 176 separate calendar entries that would fall in scope of your request, as currently worded.

o There are some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 228 calendar entries altogether.

o The conversion of each of those 176 calendar entries into a format suitable for processing and review of the contents is yet to be complete – as we would like you to consider refining your request (see below).

o Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).

Refinement sought

Reasoning

Because of the volume of material sought, we believe that processing your request according to its current broad wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:

• as stated above, there are at least 176 calendar entries in scope currently;

• using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 14.66 hours just to retrieve and convert the 176 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments);

• after all the calendar entries and their attachments have been retrieved and converted into the appropriate format, a review of all the documents would be required which, at a conservative estimate, would take at least five minutes per page on average (this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation;

• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.

Rough Calendar Entry Types

To assist with any refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 176 entries to ascertain their contents. The rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = 17

Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = 20

Regular monthly meetings = 3

One-off meetings, events or calls = 55

Team meetings = 1

Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = 8

Staff leave entries = 8

Groups, Boards or Committees = 16

Reminders = 4

Hard to categorise at face value = 32

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry you are looking for?

If yes, please let us know as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this coming Sunday 2 November 2025, so that we can engage with you on the Monday if we have any follow-up questions.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team

University Governance Office

The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]

Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[FOI #13820 email]

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:

https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Good evening Joyce,

Following our below emails to you, please find attached a letter outlining our intention to refuse access to the documents – although you do have the opportunity to revise your request before we make a final decision.

You are welcome to refine your request to, for example, an exact document you were looking for, specific types of calendar entries you are interested, a smaller date range, etc.

At present, we believe your request in its current form (i.e., the processing of at least 100 separate calendar entries - and any further attachments entailed) would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources.

If there are any other ways you would seek to refine your request in order to help us find exactly what you’re looking for, please let us know - and we will engage with you the whole way through.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University
Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906
FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

-----Original Message-----
From: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Sent: Monday, 3 November 2025 9:45 PM
To: 'Joyce Mayer' <[FOI #13820 email]>
Cc: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Refinement Ack'ed + Further Refinement Sought - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Good evening Joyce,

Thank you very much for coming back to us regarding request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

For clarity, your originally requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.
I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Your refinement on Sunday 2 November 2025 changed the scope of the request:

“… please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September 2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.”

Update on your refinement

• Your current refinement narrows your request to encompass at least 90 entries of the original entries identified.
• There are still some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 102 calendar entries altogether.
• Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).
• The above figures do not take into account any additional calendar entries on the weekdays 10 and 11 September 2025. Because the average number of entries over the time span 12-22 September 2025 is 6.9 per day, we can conservatively bring the estimated total number of entries over the entire 10-22 September 2025 period to take into account approximately 13 entries over 10-11 September 2025. This takes the estimated total to 103 entries over the entire request timeframe.

We acknowledge that you have reduced your request timeframe from 22 days down to 13 days – lowering the total minimum number of entries from 176 to approximately 103, so thank you for that.

Refinement still sought

Reasoning

Because there is still a significant volume of material sought, and due to the lack of specification about what specific types of calendar entries you are after, we still believe that processing your request according to its refined, but still broad, wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:

• As stated above, there are at approximately 103 calendar entries likely to be in scope of your refined request.
• Using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 8.58 hours just to retrieve and convert the estimated 103 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments).
• To provide you with more of an idea of the level of work involved after we have collected and collated the documents, we estimate at least 19.16 further hours of processing would be required (this would involve a review of all the documents and their attachments, and would take, at a conservative estimate, at least five minutes per page on average. As stated in our email to you last week, this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation. This brings the minimum number of hours to process the request (from collating the documents to final reviews and at least one consultation) to at least 27.74 hours.
• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval also confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.
• Specifying exactly what type of calendar entries you are seeking would help us process your request not just in the collation of the material but also in the processing/review of the material. As it stands, due to the varied nature of all the different entries, multiple consultees would need to be contacted about the release of any information, and multiple different sections of the FOI Act would need to be thoroughly considered (and perhaps weighed against the public interest) when reviewing the material.

Rough Calendar Entry Types for Refined Request

To assist with any further refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 90 entries to ascertain their contents. Of the 90 entries identified so far, the rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = at least 6

Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = at least 10

Regular monthly meetings = at least 2

One-off meetings, events or calls = at least 30

Team meetings = at least 1

Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = at least 10

Staff leave entries = at least 4

Groups, Boards or Committees = at least 11

Reminders = at least 1

Hard to categorise at face value = at least 15

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request further to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry – or type of entries – you are looking for? Another example of refining your request: were you also interested in all the attachments to calendar entries?

If yes, please get back to us as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this Wednesday 5 November 2025, so that we can engage with you over the following days.

If you cannot refine your request any further, we may need to work with you to consider other mechanisms under the FOI Act – be they charging for this request, an agreed 30-day extension, or any other mechanism that can result in a clear decision for you.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Joyce Mayer <[FOI #13820 email]>
Sent: Sunday, 2 November 2025 8:42 PM
To: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Update + Refinement Sought - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Dear Freedom of Information,

Due to a glitch the previous response did not display. To refine the scope, please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September 2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.

Yours sincerely,

Joyce Mayer

-----Original Message-----

Good evening Joyce,

We refer to your below request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

You requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Update on your request

• Staff have conducted a preliminary search for the information, and have identified at least 176 separate calendar entries that would fall in scope of your request, as currently worded.

o There are some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 228 calendar entries altogether.

o The conversion of each of those 176 calendar entries into a format suitable for processing and review of the contents is yet to be complete – as we would like you to consider refining your request (see below).

o Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).

Refinement sought

Reasoning

Because of the volume of material sought, we believe that processing your request according to its current broad wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:

• as stated above, there are at least 176 calendar entries in scope currently;

• using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 14.66 hours just to retrieve and convert the 176 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments);

• after all the calendar entries and their attachments have been retrieved and converted into the appropriate format, a review of all the documents would be required which, at a conservative estimate, would take at least five minutes per page on average (this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation;

• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.

Rough Calendar Entry Types

To assist with any refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 176 entries to ascertain their contents. The rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = 17

Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = 20

Regular monthly meetings = 3

One-off meetings, events or calls = 55

Team meetings = 1

Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = 8

Staff leave entries = 8

Groups, Boards or Committees = 16

Reminders = 4

Hard to categorise at face value = 32

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry you are looking for?

If yes, please let us know as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this coming Sunday 2 November 2025, so that we can engage with you on the Monday if we have any follow-up questions.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team

University Governance Office

The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]

Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[FOI #13820 email]

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:

https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Dear Joyce,

We refer to our below email and the notice attached.

As we have not heard from you within 14 days from the attached notice, your request is now taken to be withdrawn.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University
Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Sent: Thursday, 6 November 2025 10:06 PM
To: 'Joyce Mayer' <[FOI #13820 email]>
Cc: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Prac Refusal (Diversion of Resources) + Open to Further Refinement - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Good evening Joyce,

Following our below emails to you, please find attached a letter outlining our intention to refuse access to the documents – although you do have the opportunity to revise your request before we make a final decision.

You are welcome to refine your request to, for example, an exact document you were looking for, specific types of calendar entries you are interested, a smaller date range, etc.

At present, we believe your request in its current form (i.e., the processing of at least 100 separate calendar entries - and any further attachments entailed) would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources.

If there are any other ways you would seek to refine your request in order to help us find exactly what you’re looking for, please let us know - and we will engage with you the whole way through.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University
Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906 FOI Team University Governance Office The Australian National University

-----Original Message-----
From: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Sent: Monday, 3 November 2025 9:45 PM
To: 'Joyce Mayer' <[FOI #13820 email]>
Cc: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Refinement Ack'ed + Further Refinement Sought - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Good evening Joyce,

Thank you very much for coming back to us regarding request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

For clarity, your originally requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.
I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Your refinement on Sunday 2 November 2025 changed the scope of the request:

“… please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September 2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.”

Update on your refinement

• Your current refinement narrows your request to encompass at least 90 entries of the original entries identified.
• There are still some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 102 calendar entries altogether.
• Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).
• The above figures do not take into account any additional calendar entries on the weekdays 10 and 11 September 2025. Because the average number of entries over the time span 12-22 September 2025 is 6.9 per day, we can conservatively bring the estimated total number of entries over the entire 10-22 September 2025 period to take into account approximately 13 entries over 10-11 September 2025. This takes the estimated total to 103 entries over the entire request timeframe.

We acknowledge that you have reduced your request timeframe from 22 days down to 13 days – lowering the total minimum number of entries from 176 to approximately 103, so thank you for that.

Refinement still sought

Reasoning

Because there is still a significant volume of material sought, and due to the lack of specification about what specific types of calendar entries you are after, we still believe that processing your request according to its refined, but still broad, wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:

• As stated above, there are at approximately 103 calendar entries likely to be in scope of your refined request.
• Using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 8.58 hours just to retrieve and convert the estimated 103 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments).
• To provide you with more of an idea of the level of work involved after we have collected and collated the documents, we estimate at least 19.16 further hours of processing would be required (this would involve a review of all the documents and their attachments, and would take, at a conservative estimate, at least five minutes per page on average. As stated in our email to you last week, this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation. This brings the minimum number of hours to process the request (from collating the documents to final reviews and at least one consultation) to at least 27.74 hours.
• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval also confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.
• Specifying exactly what type of calendar entries you are seeking would help us process your request not just in the collation of the material but also in the processing/review of the material. As it stands, due to the varied nature of all the different entries, multiple consultees would need to be contacted about the release of any information, and multiple different sections of the FOI Act would need to be thoroughly considered (and perhaps weighed against the public interest) when reviewing the material.

Rough Calendar Entry Types for Refined Request

To assist with any further refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 90 entries to ascertain their contents. Of the 90 entries identified so far, the rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = at least 6

Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = at least 10

Regular monthly meetings = at least 2

One-off meetings, events or calls = at least 30

Team meetings = at least 1

Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = at least 10

Staff leave entries = at least 4

Groups, Boards or Committees = at least 11

Reminders = at least 1

Hard to categorise at face value = at least 15

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request further to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry – or type of entries – you are looking for? Another example of refining your request: were you also interested in all the attachments to calendar entries?

If yes, please get back to us as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this Wednesday 5 November 2025, so that we can engage with you over the following days.

If you cannot refine your request any further, we may need to work with you to consider other mechanisms under the FOI Act – be they charging for this request, an agreed 30-day extension, or any other mechanism that can result in a clear decision for you.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-----Original Message-----
From: Joyce Mayer <[FOI #13820 email]>
Sent: Sunday, 2 November 2025 8:42 PM
To: Freedom of Information <[ANU request email]>
Subject: RE: FOI 202500253 - Update + Refinement Sought - Diary Meetings of Interim Vice-Chancellor

Dear Freedom of Information,

Due to a glitch the previous response did not display. To refine the scope, please amend the search window to 10 September to 22 September 2025 and include all categories as listed above in the refined search.

Yours sincerely,

Joyce Mayer

-----Original Message-----

Good evening Joyce,

We refer to your below request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), received on 8 October 2025.

You requested:

“… copies of the diary schedule/calendar entries for Interim Vice-Chancellor, Prof Brown, for the period 12 September 2025 to 3 October 2025, inclusive.

I request copies of all calendar events entries, including meetings, appointments, official engagements, and events scheduled in the email accounts of Rebekah Brown, the Provost or Vice-Chancellor email accounts during this period.”

Update on your request

• Staff have conducted a preliminary search for the information, and have identified at least 176 separate calendar entries that would fall in scope of your request, as currently worded.

o There are some calendar entries that span multiple days, therefore if those entries were to be counted on a daily basis (rather than treated as single entries), then that would bring the number up to 228 calendar entries altogether.

o The conversion of each of those 176 calendar entries into a format suitable for processing and review of the contents is yet to be complete – as we would like you to consider refining your request (see below).

o Upon conversion, each calendar entry would amount to at least one page – and that would not include any relevant attachments that an entry might contain (and those attachments’ pages).

Refinement sought

Reasoning

Because of the volume of material sought, we believe that processing your request according to its current broad wording would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources. This is for the following reasons:

• as stated above, there are at least 176 calendar entries in scope currently;

• using a conservative estimate, it would take a minimum of 14.66 hours just to retrieve and convert the 176 entries into a format suitable for review and further processing (based on a baseline estimate that retrieval and conversion of the documents would take 5 minutes each / per page; this time estimate excludes the retrieval and conversion of potential attachments);

• after all the calendar entries and their attachments have been retrieved and converted into the appropriate format, a review of all the documents would be required which, at a conservative estimate, would take at least five minutes per page on average (this review would involve removing duplicate material where necessary, removing out of scope material if necessary, considering elements of each document in terms of releasing vs withholding according to the FOI Act, and identifying material that may require consultation;

• in this case, a high-level view of the calendar entries prior to retrieval confirms that multiple consultations would be necessary in order to make a decision on the request.

Rough Calendar Entry Types

To assist with any refinement you choose to give us, we have roughly categorised the calendar entries from what we could see of them. Please note that this is not exact, given we have not retrieved, converted and reviewed all 176 entries to ascertain their contents. The rough number of calendar entries according to type are as follows:

Personal = 17

Regular weekly catch-ups or one-on-ones = 20

Regular monthly meetings = 3

One-off meetings, events or calls = 55

Team meetings = 1

Calendar block-outs (e.g. for task/work focus; for travel time pre-/post- meeting) = 8

Staff leave entries = 8

Groups, Boards or Committees = 16

Reminders = 4

Hard to categorise at face value = 32

Given the above, would you therefore be willing to refine your request to specify exactly what you document / calendar entry you are looking for?

If yes, please let us know as soon as possible – and ideally no later than COB this coming Sunday 2 November 2025, so that we can engage with you on the Monday if we have any follow-up questions.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team

University Governance Office

The Australian National University

Email: [ANU request email]

Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[FOI #13820 email]

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:

https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections