Evidence in relation to AI-assisted abuse of the FOI system

Currently waiting for a response from Attorney-General's Department, they should respond promptly and normally no later than (details).

Dear Attorney-General's Department,

In recent public media, the Attorney-General and other government ministers have referred to “AI bot generated requests” and FOI requests being made by “foreign powers, foreign actors, (and) criminal gangs” as reasons .

I am requesting a copy of the briefing or document held by the Department and produced in 2025 that refers to any evidence that FOI requests are being made at scale by criminal gangs.

I am happy to receive a redacted excerpt of the document that only covers the sentences relevant to FOI requests being made by criminal gangs, including any numerical data or estimates of the number of such requests.

Yours faithfully,

A (human and non-criminal) member of the (Australian) public

AGD FOI Requests, Attorney-General's Department

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AGD FOI Requests, Attorney-General's Department

OFFICIAL

 

Good afternoon,

 

Thank you for your request, which was received by the Commonwealth
Attorney-General’s Department (the department) Freedom of Information
(FOI) section (reference number FOI25/399). We write to acknowledge your
request, seek an extension of time for processing, and your agreement to
exclude certain information from your request.

 

Request for extension of time

We received your FOI request on 2 September 2025 and the 30-day statutory
period for processing your request commences on the following day. The
statutory due date for decision is currently Thursday, 2 October 2025. Due
to an increase in the number of information access applications currently
being received by the department, a case officer is yet to be allocated
and we therefore 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 Monday, 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.

 

Request to exclude certain information from the scope of your request

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

o duplicates of documents that are in scope;
o personal information of members of the public;
o contact details for teams, internal to the department and other
agencies
o personal information belonging to officers of the department and other
government agencies.

 

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 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
[1]http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection....

 

Next steps

Please respond to this email by Friday, 5 September 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 [2][AGD request email].

 

Kind Regards,

 

Steph
Freedom of Information & Privacy

Attorney General’s Department

( Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | * Email: [3][AGD request email]

 

show quoted sections

Dear AGD FOI Requests,

At this stage I’m not able to agree to the Department’s pro forma request for an extension of time (EOT) under section 15AA. 30 days is the maximum statutory time for an EOT request under 15AA. Best practices per the FOI guidelines indicates that when requesting an EOT you should make clear to the applicant how the additional time will be used and provide expected dates and timelines for actions.

If you can provide this information and potentially request a shorter s15AA EOT than the maximum 30 days, I will favourably consider the request.

Should the request later require a 30 day consultation period with other parties, your request for an extension would then increase the response time to 90 days. Please let me know if you expect to request an additional 30 day consultation period in relation to this request. If so, I’m unlikely to agree to a s15AA EOT.

I am happy to agree with your proposed reduction of scope for the request excluding:

o duplicates of documents that are in scope;
o personal information of members of the public;
o contact details for teams, internal to the department and other agencies
o personal information belonging to officers of the department and other government agencies.

I would favourably consider any further proposed reduction in scope that would minimise work for the Department while still covering the desired information.

Yours sincerely,

M. Public