Dear Andrew

Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made in the following terms:

Pursuant to the FOI Act 1982, I request access to:

- the directions issued under s274(2A), s274(7A), s276 and s277 of the
Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 during the scrutiny of the 2025 federal
election

- any policies or internal guidance (however described) regarding the
decision to issue directions under those sections (including any guidance
around the selection of candidates for 2CP and the decision to conduct 3CP
or other non-traditional counts)

I ask that fees be waived on the grounds of public interest, noting the
significant expert and media interest in decisions around 2CP and 3CP
counts during this election.

I understand your request for documents to exclude:

o duplicate and draft versions of documents
o personal information of Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) staff.

Timeframe to process your request

Your request was received by the AEC on 31 May 2025, and the 30-day
statutory timeframe for processing your request commenced from the day
after that date. You should expect to receive a decision from us by 30
June 2025. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult
third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this timeframe
is extended.

Your address

The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address to which we can
send notices. You have advised that your electronic address is
[1][FOI #13250 email]. We will send all notices
and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as possible
if you wish for notices and correspondence to be sent to a different
address. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, notices and
correspondence will continue to be sent to the address specified above.

Administrative release of documents

The AEC has administrative access arrangements for the release of certain
documents without the need for a formal freedom of information request.
Where appropriate we may offer you documents via the administrative access
scheme in lieu of processing under the FOI Act.  Information relating to
third parties cannot be released via administrative access. You will be
notified when documents are released to you on an administrative access
basis.

Disclosure log

Documents released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log
on the AEC's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this
publication, however it is subject to certain exceptions, including where
publication of personal, business, professional or commercial information
would be unreasonable.

Further assistance

If you have any questions, please email [email address], or advise us if
you would like us to call you at a time that is convenient to you.

Yours sincerely

Jade

Australian Electoral Commission

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Dear Andrew

Re: Request for extension of time

Due to limited staff availability and an increase in FOI requests following the election period, we kindly seek your consent to extend the statutory timeframe to process your request by a further 7 days.

With the extension of 7 days, you should expect to receive a decision from us no later than 7 July 2025.

Please respond to confirm whether you agree to the extension of time.

Kind regards,

Jade
Australian Electoral Commission

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Dear Andrew

Your Freedom of Information Request – Section 24AB Consultation

I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), received on 31 May 2025 made in the
following terms:

Pursuant to the FOI Act 1982, I request access to:

- the directions issued under s274(2A), s274(7A), s276 and s277 of the
Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 during the scrutiny of the 2025 federal
election

- any policies or internal guidance (however described) regarding the
decision to issue directions under those sections (including any guidance
around the selection of candidates for 2CP and the decision to conduct 3CP
or other non-traditional counts)

Thank you for your flexibility with this request so far, it is greatly
appreciated.

I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make
decisions in relation to FOI requests. 

The Australian Electoral Commission (the AEC) believes that work involved
in processing your FOI request in its current form would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the AEC from its other operations due
to its broad scope.

This is called a ‘practical refusal reason' under section 24AA of the FOI
Act.  On the basis of the practical refusal reason, I intend to refuse
access to the documents you requested.

Before I make a final decision, you have the opportunity to revise your
FOI request. This is called a 'request consultation process', and is set
out in section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to respond to this
notice in one of the ways set out below.

Why your request may be refused

You have sought documents relating to the directions issued under sections
274(2A), 274(7A), 276 and 277 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918
(Electoral Act), as well as any policies or internal guidance about
issuing these directions.

I have decided that a practical refusal reason may exist because:

·        The scope of your request is too broad and has returned over 200
documents from the relevant line area. The line area spent a total of 39.5
hours collating these documents.

·        Following this, as the FOI decision maker, I am required to check
each document carefully for potential sensitive information. Under section
24AA(2) of the FOI Act, the AEC must have regard to the resources that
would be used for:

o   identifying, locating or collating the documents within the filing
system of the AEC

o deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to
which the request relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of
such a document (including resources that would have to be used for
examining the document or consulting with any person or body in
relation to the request)
o making a copy or an edited copy, of the document
o notifying any interim or final decision on the request.

·        Considering the number of documents retrieved and the time
already spent on this request, progressing this request would involve an
unreasonable diversion of the AEC’s resources.

Scope of your request

For ease, please see the below table that sets out the plain language
meaning of what you seek from each of the aforementioned sections of the
Electoral Act.

Section of Act Plain language meaning
Section 274(2A) AEO directions to Divisions to conduct the
two-candidate-preferred count (“2CP”) and
three-candidate-preferred count (“3CP”).
Section 274(7A) AEO directions to Divisions to conduct fresh scrutiny on
preferences (other than first preferences).
Section 276 AEO directions to Divisions to conduct scrutiny of second
and later preferences after all votes counted, but before
the declaration of a candidate.
Section 277 After the election of a candidate in the HoR, directions
can be given to DROs to examine the second and later
preferences of candidates

We interpret your request to seek the above directions for all 150
Divisions across Australia for the 2025 federal election. As mentioned
above, the line area has retrieved over 200 documents. The AEC is a
relatively small agency with a small number of officers who process FOI
requests. Accordingly, the scope of your request is too broad and would
divert the AEC’s resources if progressed.

Request consultation process

You now have the opportunity to revise your request so that it may
proceed.

You may wish to revise your request to narrow the scope of documents, or
explain in detail the specific documents that you wish to access. For
example, you may want documents for specific Divisions.

Before the end of the 14 day consultation period, you must write to the
AEC and either:

o withdraw your request;
o make a revised request; or
o tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.

The 14 day consultation period will start on the day after you receive
this notice.

During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from AEC to revise
your request. If you revise your request to adequately address the
practical refusal reasons outlined above, the AEC will recommence
processing it.

The time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the 30-day time limit for
processing your request.

If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the
consultation period or you do not contact the AEC to discuss your request
during this period, your request will be taken to have been withdrawn.

Further assistance

If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please
email [1][email address]. 

Yours sincerely

Carys

Australian Electoral Commission

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Good morning Andrew

Thank you for rescoping your request. Confirming that we have received both of your emails containing the revised scope. Due to the 1 day consultation period, your request is now due on 8 July 2025.

Warm regards,

Jade
Australian Electoral Commission

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Dear Andrew

Please see the attached documents relating to your FOI request.

Warm regards,

Jade

Australian Electoral Commission

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