Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team of Services
Australia (the Agency).

This email acknowledges your correspondence and provides general FOI
information .
We are currently experiencing a higher than usual volume of requests,
which has resulted in some delays in our review and response process. We
are seeking your agreement to extend the processing time by an additional
30 days. If you agree to this additional time, we would appreciate it if
you could reply to this email with “I agree to a 30 day extension of time”
at your earliest opportunity.
Administrative release of documents  
The Agency uses administrative access arrangements ('the arrangements') to
release certain types of documents outside the FOI Act. We will advise you
if the documents you seek are suitable for release to you under the
arrangements. If you consent to receiving documents under the
arrangements, please reply to this email with “I agree to receive
documents via the arrangements where appropriate”.
Personal information of Agency staff
As part of the FOI process, we seek your consent to remove any information
that may identify junior staff. Please reply to this email with “I agree
to exclude staff details”. 
Once you consent to remove this information, it will be irrelevant under
Section 22 of the FOI Act.
How we will send documents to you
We will use this email address to send you documents. We will advise you
if we are unable to send documents to you via email due to their size.
How long do I have to wait?
Unless your request has been extended, we are required to notify you
within 30 days.  
Requesting a formal external review of a FOI deemed refusal decision
After the due date has past and you did not receive a decision, the
request becomes a ‘deemed refusal decision’. You may request the
Information Commissioner to review the ‘deemed refusal decision’. For
further information, see [1]Apply for an Information Commissioner review |
OAIC (or visit [2]www.oaic.gov.au).
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IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
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References

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1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/

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Dear Frank N Fearless,

I am writing regarding your Freedom of Information request to Services
Australia (the Agency) as follows:

I would like to request minutes for the last two Escalated Customer
Learning Reference Group meetings.

In terms of public interest, I noted paragraph 3.66 of the Ombudsman 2nd
report on income apportionment:

"Services Australia advised it may discuss escalated complaints related to
review delays or income apportionment with the agency’s Escalated Customer
Learning Reference Group’ (ECLRG), in whi agency managers can internally
share learnings and systemic issues arising from complaints and customer
feedback. Records indicate the ECLRG met to discuss the income
apportionment issue in approximately February 2023, but it is unclear
whether – or how frequently – the group has discussed, or intends to
discuss income apportionment."

Regarding junior staff details

We consider staff details to be personal information of those staff
members. As such, we are seeking your consent to exclude the following
information from documents that may be captured by your request:

o names of Services Australia staff below the Senior Executive level
(junior staff)
o direct staff telephone numbers, signatures, logon identifiers and
email addresses.

If you consent to exclude this information, we will treat it as outside
the scope of your request and therefore irrelevant under Section 22 of the
FOI Act.

Request for Extension of time

I am currently in the process of reviewing the documents relevant to your
request and require additional time to review these documents, consult
further on any sensitivities, finalise the decision and progress the
matter through the quality assurance process.

If a decision is not notified to you within time, your request will be
deemed to be refused by operation of the FOI Act. The Agency will still
continue to process your request as a Statement of Reasons, however you
will unfortunately lose your internal review rights. Our objective for
this extension of time request is to ensure the decision and documents
relevant to your request are released on time under the FOI Act, thus
maintaining your internal review rights.

On this basis, I respectfully request an extension of time of 30 days to
process your request. The effect of the extension would mean the new
decision due date would be 18 November 2025. If we are able to process
your request and provide you with a decision before this date, we will do
so.

If you agree to this extension of time, it would be greatly appreciated if
you could please respond to this email stating ‘I agree’.

Action required by 16 October 2025 (if possible)

It would be greatly appreciated if you could please respond to this email
advising:

o whether you agree to a 30 day extension of time, by stating “I agree
to extension”
o whether you agree to remove junior staff details, by stating “I agree
to remove staff details”

Please note, if we do not receive a reply from you by the above date, we
will still continue to process your request.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kind regards,

Michelle, FOI Officer

Freedom of Information & Reviews Branch, Legal Services Division

[1]Visual brand element showing Services Australia progress symbol to left
with Services Australia wording to the right of the symbol. Underneath is
servicesaustralia.gov.au and icons representing our social media accounts.
To follow us on social media go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/socialmedia
Aligning the bottom of the signature block is the Services Australia
indigenous artwork strip consisting of cultural elements depicting our
agency’s progress story for First Nations people.

**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************

References

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Dear Frank N Fearless,

I am just following up on the below email regarding our request for an
extension of time and removal of junior staff details, as we have not yet
received a response from you.

I note that a decision on your request is due on Monday, 20 October 2025,
and confirm the Agency will not be in a position to notify this request on
time. As indicated in the email sent to you 13 October 2025, we are
seeking your agreement to an extension of time to process you request, as
we require additional time to review the documents and consult on the
documents proposed for release. Additionally, we are also seeking your
agreement to remove junior staff details from documents that are captured
by your request.

If we do not hear back from you by COB 20 October 2025, we will continue
to process your request as a Statement of Reasons and provide you with the
outcome as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Michelle, FOI Officer

Freedom of Information & Reviews Branch, Legal Services Division

[1]Visual brand element showing Services Australia progress symbol to left
with Services Australia wording to the right of the symbol. Underneath is
servicesaustralia.gov.au and icons representing our social media accounts.
To follow us on social media go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/socialmedia
Aligning the bottom of the signature block is the Services Australia
indigenous artwork strip consisting of cultural elements depicting our
agency’s progress story for First Nations people.

From: FREEDOMOFINFORMATION <[Services Australia request email]>
Sent: Monday, 13 October 2025 1:36 PM
To: '[FOI #13679 email]'
<[FOI #13679 email]>
Cc: FREEDOMOFINFORMATION <[Services Australia request email]>
Subject: LEX 87587 – Communication – Request for extension of time –
please respond by 16/10/2025 [SEC=OFFICIAL]

Dear Frank N Fearless,

I am writing regarding your Freedom of Information request to Services
Australia (the Agency) as follows:

I would like to request minutes for the last two Escalated Customer
Learning Reference Group meetings.

In terms of public interest, I noted paragraph 3.66 of the Ombudsman 2nd
report on income apportionment:

"Services Australia advised it may discuss escalated complaints related to
review delays or income apportionment with the agency’s Escalated Customer
Learning Reference Group’ (ECLRG), in whi agency managers can internally
share learnings and systemic issues arising from complaints and customer
feedback. Records indicate the ECLRG met to discuss the income
apportionment issue in approximately February 2023, but it is unclear
whether – or how frequently – the group has discussed, or intends to
discuss income apportionment."

Regarding junior staff details

We consider staff details to be personal information of those staff
members. As such, we are seeking your consent to exclude the following
information from documents that may be captured by your request:

o names of Services Australia staff below the Senior Executive level
(junior staff)
o direct staff telephone numbers, signatures, logon identifiers and
email addresses.

If you consent to exclude this information, we will treat it as outside
the scope of your request and therefore irrelevant under Section 22 of the
FOI Act.

Request for Extension of time

I am currently in the process of reviewing the documents relevant to your
request and require additional time to review these documents, consult
further on any sensitivities, finalise the decision and progress the
matter through the quality assurance process.

If a decision is not notified to you within time, your request will be
deemed to be refused by operation of the FOI Act. The Agency will still
continue to process your request as a Statement of Reasons, however you
will unfortunately lose your internal review rights. Our objective for
this extension of time request is to ensure the decision and documents
relevant to your request are released on time under the FOI Act, thus
maintaining your internal review rights.

On this basis, I respectfully request an extension of time of 30 days to
process your request. The effect of the extension would mean the new
decision due date would be 18 November 2025. If we are able to process
your request and provide you with a decision before this date, we will do
so.

If you agree to this extension of time, it would be greatly appreciated if
you could please respond to this email stating ‘I agree’.

Action required by 16 October 2025 (if possible)

It would be greatly appreciated if you could please respond to this email
advising:

o whether you agree to a 30 day extension of time, by stating “I agree
to extension”
o whether you agree to remove junior staff details, by stating “I agree
to remove staff details”

Please note, if we do not receive a reply from you by the above date, we
will still continue to process your request.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Kind regards,

Michelle, FOI Officer

Freedom of Information & Reviews Branch, Legal Services Division

[2]Visual brand element showing Services Australia progress symbol to left
with Services Australia wording to the right of the symbol. Underneath is
servicesaustralia.gov.au and icons representing our social media accounts.
To follow us on social media go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/socialmedia
Aligning the bottom of the signature block is the Services Australia
indigenous artwork strip consisting of cultural elements depicting our
agency’s progress story for First Nations people.

**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************

References

Visible links

hide quoted sections

Dear Frank N Fearless,

I am writing to provide you with an update on your Freedom of Information
request to Services Australia (the Agency) as follows:

              I would like to request minutes for the last two Escalated
Customer Learning Reference Group meetings.

In terms of public interest, I noted paragraph 3.66 of the Ombudsman 2nd
report on income apportionment:

"Services Australia advised it may discuss escalated complaints related to
review delays or income apportionment with the agency’s Escalated Customer
Learning Reference Group’ (ECLRG), in which agency managers can internally
share learnings and systemic issues arising from complaints and customer
feedback. Records indicate the ECLRG met to discuss the income
apportionment issue in approximately February 2023, but it is unclear
whether – or how frequently – the group has discussed, or intends to
discuss income apportionment."

The Agency was required to provide you with a decision on your request by
20 October 2025. As a decision was not provided by this date, the
principal officer of the Agency is deemed to have refused your request
under section 15AC of the FOI Act.

We apologise for the delay and any inconvenience this may have caused.
Please be assured that we are continuing to progress your Freedom of
Information request and are actively working to finalise the matter.

We will provide you with a further update as soon as possible and
appreciate your understanding in the meantime. 

As you have not received a decision before the due date, you can apply to
the Information Commissioner for review of what is called a ‘deemed
decision’. For further information, see Apply for an Information
Commissioner review | OAIC (or visit [1]www.oaic.gov.au).

Kind regards,

Michelle, FOI Officer

Freedom of Information & Reviews Branch, Legal Services Division

[2]Visual brand element showing Services Australia progress symbol to left
with Services Australia wording to the right of the symbol. Underneath is
servicesaustralia.gov.au and icons representing our social media accounts.
To follow us on social media go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/socialmedia
Aligning the bottom of the signature block is the Services Australia
indigenous artwork strip consisting of cultural elements depicting our
agency’s progress story for First Nations people.

**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. http://www.oaic.gov.au/

hide quoted sections