IVC Rebekah Brown and Senator Pocock communications
Dear Australian National University,
Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, I seek access to any and all documents held by the Australian National University that relate to:
- All meeting requests between the Interim Vice chancellor Rebekah Brown and Senator Pocock, including, but not limited to: calendar appointments, meeting requests, meeting briefing documents, call logs, text messages on mobile, teams or Signal.
-Summary documents of meeting notes from meetings between Rebekah Brown and David Pocock.
- Letters, emails, formal or informal correspondence such text messages.
- All communications between Vice chancellor Rebekah Brown or the IVC Office, and Fiona Scott, Chief of Staff to David Pocock, including, but not limited to: calendar appointments, meeting requests, meeting briefing documents, call logs, text messages on mobile, teams or Signal.
The date range is 10 August 2025 to present.
Yours faithfully,
Remy E
Good afternoon Remy,
On 16 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:
“… any and all documents held by the Australian National University that relate to:
1. All meeting requests between the Interim Vice chancellor Rebekah Brown and Senator Pocock, including, but not limited to: calendar appointments, meeting requests, meeting briefing documents, call logs, text messages on mobile, teams or Signal.
2. Summary documents of meeting notes from meetings between Rebekah Brown and David Pocock.
3. Letters, emails, formal or informal correspondence such text messages.
4. All communications between Vice chancellor Rebekah Brown or the IVC Office, and Fiona Saccott, Chief of Staff to David Pocock, including, but not limited to: calendar appointments, meeting requests, meeting briefing documents, call logs, text messages on mobile, teams or Signal.”
You specified that the date range for your request is 10 August 2025 to present (16 October 2025).
Your request has been assigned the case number 202500268.
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 17 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 endeavours 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
Dear Remy,
We refer to your request in the below thread for access to documents regarding communications between the University’s Interim Vice-Chancellor, Rebekah Brown, and Senator Pocock, which received by the Australian National University (the University) on 16 October 2025 under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
You specified that the date range for the documents being requested was 10 August 2025 to present (16 October 2025, the date of this request).
Update
• Staff have finished searching for the requested documents, and (at this stage) identified one as falling in scope of your request. If, upon further review, we believe this document is not relevant to your request, we will let you know.
• Staff have already performed an initial review of the material.
• During the review, it was clear that at least one third party needs to be consulted on the material before a decision can be made for its release.
Extension (for consultations)
The University is required to consult with the identified third party (under section 27A of the FOI Act) before making a decision on the release of the document(s).
The consultation mechanism under section 27A applies when we believe a third party concerned might reasonably wish to contend that the requested documents are exempt because their release would disclose the personal information of that third party.
Accordingly, the period for processing your request has been extended by a further 30 days in order to allow our agency time to consult with that third party concerned.
The processing period for your request will therefore now end on Wednesday 10 December 2025. Please note that this is a maximum timeframe.
If you have any questions about any of the above, you are welcome to get in touch. We apologise for any inconvenience this longer timeframe causes you. Please be reassured that we are actively processing your request.
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
*Important correction to the below email:
The processing period for your request will therefore now end on Monday 15 December 2025, not Wednesday 11 December 2025.
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