Subject: FOI Request – Documents relating to 2025-26 State/Territory Skilled Nomination Allocations
Dear Department of Home Affairs,
Under s 15 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth), I seek access to documents held by the Department of Home Affairs that relate to the timing and release of the 2025-26 State and Territory Skilled Migration Nomination Allocations. Specifically:
	1.	Copies of, or extracts from, the following documents (if they exist):
•	Migration Program Delivery Instrument 2025-26 – State/Territory Allocation Table;
	•	Skilled Program Planning Brief – State Allocation Release Timing;
	•	Ministerial Submission: Finalisation of 2025-26 State/Territory Nomination Allocations.
2. Any internal briefings, minutes, or email correspondence prepared for the Minister for Home Affairs, the Executive Coordination Division, or the Deputy Secretary (Skills and Migration) that discuss or recommend the timing of the public release of the final 2025-26 State/Territory Skilled Migration Allocations.
Date range: 1 July 2025 to present.
I do not seek Cabinet documents themselves but only departmental briefings or correspondence prepared in support of Cabinet consideration. Personal information may be excluded from scope.
Yours faithfully,
J.L.
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OFFICIAL: Sensitive
Personal-Privacy
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:	FA 25/11/00063 
File Number:	FA25/11/00063 
Dear J L
Acknowledgement of Freedom of Information Access request
This letter acknowledges that on 3 November 2025 the Department of Home Affairs (the Department ) received your request to access documents held by the Department under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). This letter also provides important information about your request.
Scope of request
You have requested access to the following:
Under s 15 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth), I seek access to documents held by the Department of Home Affairs that relate to the timing and release of the 2025-26 State and Territory Skilled Migration Nomination Allocations. Specifically:
1. Copies of, or extracts from, the following documents (if they exist):
• Migration Program Delivery Instrument 2025-26 – State/Territory Allocation Table;
• Skilled Program Planning Brief – State Allocation Release Timing;
• Ministerial Submission: Finalisation of 2025-26 State/Territory Nomination Allocations.
2. Any internal briefings, minutes, or email correspondence prepared for the Minister for Home Affairs, the Executive Coordination Division, or the Deputy Secretary (Skills and Migration) that discuss or recommend the timing of the public release of the final 2025-26 State/Territory Skilled Migration Allocations.
Date range: 1 July 2025 to present.
Your request has been allocated FOI request number FA 25/11/00063. Please include your FOI request number in all correspondence with the Freedom of Information Section.
Timeframe
The timeframe for processing a request is 30 days from the day we receive your request, as set out in the FOI Act.
Your review rights in relation to your request are available on Freedom of information reviews | OAIC.
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Charges are based on the amount of time the Department spends on your request. Charges can range from $10 to over $1,000 depending on the complexity and scope of your request. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reported that across the public service, the average charge notified was $335.50 in 2020-21.
If a charge applies, you will be issued with a Notice of Charge that explains the charge and your options.
Detailed information about FOI charges that may apply to your FOI request is available on the Department’s website.
We do not provide personal details of staff or non-public facing operational email addresses
The Department’s practice is to exclude the personal details of Government employees, including contractors, not in the Senior Executive Service (SES), as well as the direct contact details of SES staff, contained in documents that fall within scope of an FOI request. If you require personal details of non-SES officers, or direct contact details of SES staff, please inform us so the decision maker may consider your request. Otherwise we will take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the scope of your request as irrelevant under section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act. However names of staff that have previously been released in departmental correspondence may be disclosed.
We do not provide duplicated documents
If the FOI decision-maker deems a document to be a duplicate, they will not assess those pages as part of your FOI request. This means that if a there is a decision to release the document to you, you will receive only one copy, even if multiple copies of that document exist.
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Released documents you request may be published to our website.
Where documents are released to you in response to your request, the Department may be required to publish these documents on its website within 10 working days in accordance with section 11C of the FOI Act. Publication will not be required where the documents contain personal or business affairs information.
How to reduce or withdraw your request
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To reduce or withdraw your request, contact the FOI section at [Department of Home Affairs request email] and include your FOI request number.
Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss your request you may contact the FOI Section at [Department of Home Affairs request email].
Kind regards,
Varsha
Authorised FOI Officer, Freedom of Information 
Position Number 60204567
Privacy, FOI and Records Management Branch
Legal Group
Department of Home Affairs 
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email] 
Personal-Privacy
OFFICIAL: Sensitive
OFFICIAL: Sensitive
Personal-Privacy
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:	FA 25/11/00063 
File Number:	FA25/11/00063 
Dear J L
I refer to your request received on 3 November 2025 for access to documents under the FOI Act.
The current due date for your request is 3 December 2025.
In order for the Department to complete the process of retrieving all the documents that fall within the scope of your request the Department will require additional time to process your request.
The Department seeks your agreement under section 15AA of the FOI Act to extend the timeframe for the processing of your request by 30 days. This would extend the due date for your request to Friday 2 January 2026.
It would assist the Department in managing its FOI caseload if you could provide a response to this request by close of business, Thursday 6 November 2025.
If you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me on the details below.
Kind regards,
Varsha
Authorised FOI Officer, Freedom of Information 
Position Number 60204567
Privacy, FOI and Records Management Branch
Legal Group
Department of Home Affairs 
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email] 
Personal-Privacy
OFFICIAL: Sensitive
Dear FOI,
Thank you for your update on FOI FA 25/11/00063.
To assist the Department and expedite processing, I wish to narrow the scope of my request to a single document type:
‘Skilled Program Planning Brief – State Allocation Release Timing’ (or any equivalent 2025-26 internal briefing prepared for SES officers or the Minister that discusses the proposed or expected timing for release of the 2025-26 State/Territory Skilled Migration Nomination Allocations).
Please exclude Cabinet submissions or drafts and limit the date range to 1 September 2025 – present.
I confirm that this revision replaces all previous parts of my request.
The timeliness of releasing this information is pivotal, so ideally we’re looking at this information being released before November 14.
Yours sincerely,
JL