OFFICIAL

Dear James,

Acknowledgement

I refer to your correspondence of 4 December 2023, seeking access to
documents held by the Department of Defence (Defence) under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). This email is to advise that your request
has been received and allocated for Case Management.

The scope of your request is as follows:

Please provide all documents:

1.       Creating, authorising or establishing Joint Task Force 633 (JTF
633) and any amendments or updates to those documents.

2.       Assigning or transferring any type of command or control of
SOTG/TF66 to any non-ADF chain of command.

3.       Such as organisational charts, which show the command and control
arrangements for SOTG/TF66 between 2008 and 2014.

4.       Such as organisational charts, which show the name, rank and
where relevant, nationality, of:

(a)    Commander ISAF SOF (including nationality)

(b)    Commander of SOTG/TF66 (including nationality)

(c)    Deputy Commander of JTF633 (nationality not required)

(d)    Commander of JTF633 (nationality not required) upon each new
appointment to those positions between 2008 and 2014.

Disclaimer

Where staff details are captured in documents within the scope of your FOI
request, this information will be redacted; this includes private email
addresses, signatures, personnel (PMKeyS) numbers and mobile telephone
numbers, unless you specifically request such details. Defence excludes
duplicates of documents and any documents sent to or from you.
Furthermore, Defence only considers final versions of documents.

Charges

Defence may impose a charge for the work involved in providing access to
the documents in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Charges)
Regulations 2019. We will notify you if your request attracts a charge.
Please note that there is no charge for documents that contain the
personal information of the applicant.

Timeframe

The statutory timeframe to provide you with a decision on your request
ends on 3 January 2024. This period may be extended if we need to consult
with third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this
happens.

Please note that where the due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public
holiday, the timeframe will expire on the next working day. This is in
accordance with the FOI Guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act.

Seeking extension of time by agreement

I would like to take this opportunity to advise that the Department of
Defence observes a period of reduced activity and staffing through
December and January (Christmas/New Year period) each year. Accordingly,
this office has determined that it may not be possible to finalise
your FOI request by 3 January 2024 as it falls within this reduced
activity period.

In view of the above, this office is seeking your agreement to a 30-day
extension of the statutory deadline under section 15AA [extension with
agreement] of the FOI Act. Should you agree, the statutory deadline for
you to receive a response to your request will be 2 February 2024. We will
still endeavor to complete your request as soon as possible.

It would be appreciated if you could confirm your agreement to this
extension of time by close of business 19 December 2023.

Disclosure Log

Documents released under the FOI Act may be published on Defence’s
disclosure log, located on our website.

Contact Details

We will contact you via the email address you have provided. Please advise
if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact.

I am the Case Manager for this request. Should you have any questions
relating to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me via email:
[1][email address].

Kind regards,

Nicole|FOI Case Manager

Media and Information Disclosure Branch

Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division

Department of Defence

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Telephone: 02 6212 0529 

[2]Freedom of information requests | About | Defence

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.defence.gov.au/about/accessi...

OFFICIAL

Dear Mr Smith,

I refer to your request for access to documents relating to Joint Task
Force 633 under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

On 15 December 2023, Defence advised you that due to a reduced activity
period over December and January (Christmas/New Year period), it may not
be possible to finalise your request by the statutory due date of 3
January 2024.

On 18 December 2023, you declined the requested extension of time for the
Department to process your request.

Due to this reduced period and the limited number of people able to
conduct searches for your request due to access restrictions, we were
unable to provide you with a response by 3 January 2024.

Now that the searches have been completed, it has been determined that the
work involved in processing your request in its current form would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of this agency from
its other operations. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (section
24AA of the FOI Act).

Under section 24AA of the FOI Act and for the purposes of section 24 of
the FOI Act, Defence considers that the work involved in processing your 
request in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert
the resources of Defence from its other operations. In particular, a very
significant amount of resources would have to be diverted to arrange for
the required collating, reviewing, and decision making associated with
your request.

In your request you sought documents relating to Organisational Charts and
Authorisations.  Please be advised that over 10,000 pages of documents
would be captured by just that part of your request.

On this basis, it is likely that your request will result in a decision to
refuse the request under section 24AA of the FOI Act. However, before this
is decided, you have an opportunity to revise your request.

Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make
it more manageable or explaining in more detail to identify the specific
documents you wish to access.

The area responsible for conducting searches for the request have provided
suggestions to reduce the size of your request, such as removing or
reducing items 1 and 4 of the request, or narrowing these items
significantly.

In its current form, in item 1 were you requested documents relating to
“Creating, authorising or establishing Joint Task Force 633 (JTF 633) and
any amendments or updates to those documents”, and in item 4 of the
request you sought organisational charts between 2008 and 2014, requires
the Department to search, review, and possibly redact every Operational
Order, Fragmentation Order and Amplifying order applicable to Joint Task
Force 633. This is an would result in a large volume of work and an
unreasonable diversion of resources.

If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the
practical refusal grounds outlined above, we will process this updated
request. In order to do this we will need to seek the agreement of the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to extend the processing
time for your request, noting that you have applied for an Information
Commissioner review.

Please advise us by 8 March 2024 of your revised request, or if you
instead do not wish to revise the scope of your request.

If you have any questions between now and this date, please do not
hesitate to let us know.

Kind regards,

FOI Review Team

Media and Information Disclosure Branch

Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division

[1][email address]

PO Box 7910
R1-05-A
Canberra BC ACT 2610

[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp

OFFICIAL
Good afternoon Mr Smith

The line area has advised that they are able to process the revised scope, and processing is already underway.

We confirm that the revised scope is as follows:

1. The initial document establishing JTF633 (1 document)

2. An organisation chart applicable at 1 January and 1 July for each year including and between 2009 and 2015. (Say 14 documents)

3. The appointment document for CJTF633 for each of those years. (Approx 7 documents)

4. The document where SOTG was assigned to ISAF (as TF66) (a few documents).

We will endeavour to provide you with a decision as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

FOI Review Team

Media and Information Disclosure Branch
Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division
[email address]
PO Box 7910
R1-05-A
Canberra BC ACT 2610
http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp

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