Further submissions in support of claiming a practical refusal
exists under s 24 of the FOI Act
Please provide the completed document to the OAIC with the information the respondent is
required to provide in accordance with paragraph [3.14] of th
e Direction as to certain
procedures to be followed by agencies and ministers in IC reviews (the Procedure Direction).
Completion of the following tables will be taken as the respondent’s submissions in this
IC review. The respondent is required to send these submissions to the applicant at the same
time as they are sent to the OAIC (see the Procedure Direction at [3.23]).
Details of submission
Agency reference
LEX 811
OAIC reference
MR23/01386
Date submitted to OAIC
21 November 2024
Processing timeline and request consultation process (s 24AB)
Event
Date
FOI request received
16 October 2023
Request consultation notice sent
12 November 2023
Applicant’s response
13 November 2023
Further contacts with applicant (if relevant)
Applicant notified of decision
17 November 2023
Internal review request received (if relevant) Not applicable
Internal review decision made (if relevant)
Not applicable
Request consultation process (s 24AB) – Assistance provided to applicant (s
24AB(3) Information provided to applicant to assist It was suggested that the FOI applicant could
revision of request. (For example,
provide more specific information about
suggestions as to a scope that can be
exactly what documents they sought access
processed, directing to applicant to
to.
publicly available information,
explanation about difficulties processing
The FOI applicant was advised of the difficulty
request. Please provide detail.)
with processing the request due to:
• the FOI applicant’s refusal for the request
to be transferred to the Federal Court,
being the agency most likely to hold
relevant documents;
• the sensitivity of the subject matter, being
recruitment processes and a public
interest disclosure investigation;
• the Commission being a small portfolio
agency with limited staffing resources;
• the Commission, at that stage, having no
permanent dedicated FOI staffing
resources as the number of requests
received in the past hadn’t warranted it
and had limited capacity to obtain
temporary resourcing;
• the Commission had received a higher
than usual number of FOI requests and
internal review requests related to the
same subject matter;
• the Commission was then working on a
number of priority matters related to its
functions and the Government’s public
service reform agenda; and
• the scope of the request captured
material related to the other FOI requests
received, including documents created as
part of processing them.
Telephone contact attempted with
No
applicant. (Yes/no – if Yes please provide
detail)
The request was made anonymously via the
Right To Know website and no contact number
was provided by the FOI applicant.
Request revised during request
No
consultation process (yes/no)
2
Breakdown of estimated processing time (minutes/hours)
Total number No searches
Total estimated
of documents undertaken as it was processing time
considered these, in
themselves, would Up to 78
be too onerous.
hours
Identifying,
Up to 5 hours
Consulting
locating or
collating
Up to 9 hours
Examining
Up to 24 hours
Making a copy
Not separately itemised in the decision letter.
Deciding to
Up to 37 hours
Notifying decision
grant, refuse
or defer
(Note: Listed as
Up to 3 hours
access
“Redacting pages”
and “Compiling
schedule of
documents” in the
decision letter.)
Any relevant
additional
These estimates are
information
extremely
related to the conservative, and
estimated
the actual
processing time
processing
would likely be
time
considerably longer.
3
Sampling Sample examined? (Yes or No)
No
Sample size (as a %)
Number of electronic documents
Number of hardcopy documents
Number of non-exempt documents
Number of partially exempt documents
Number of fully exempt documents
Exemptions proposed applied
Number of documents to which a
consultation requirement applies (s
26A, 27 or 27A)
Any relevant additional information
As even the work required to identify, locate
related to sampling
and col ate relevant documents was
considered significant, no searches were
undertaken. As such, no sampling was
possible.
Whether processing the request would be unreasonable
Size of the agency (in terms 515 total (including 402 ongoing)
of number of employees). (
Source: 2023-24 APSC Annual Report)
373 total
(
Source: 2022-23 APSC Annual Report)
Number of employees
6 – more than 75% of their time
dedicated to FOI
90 – less than 75% of their time (this includes staff who may
processing
have conducted a single search for documents)
(
Source: 2023-24 OAIC Annual Statistical Return)
1 – more than 75% of their time
11 – less than 75% of their time (this includes staff who may
have conducted a single search for documents)
(
Source: 2022-23 OAIC Annual Statistical Return)
Number or requests
94
received in the last
(
Source: 2023-24 OAIC Annual Statistical Return)
financial year
70
(
Source: 2022-23 OAIC Annual Statistical Return)
4
Whether processing the request would be unreasonable Other factors the Respondent may consider to be relevant (see FOI Guidelines
[3.117] and
ACW at [22]
The staffing resources
As noted in both the consultation notice and the decision
available to an agency or
letter, the Commission is a smal portfolio agency with
Minister for FOI processing limited staffing resources.
At the time of the request, the Commission did not have any
permanent dedicated FOI staffing resources as, historically,
the number of requests received had been quite low.
Also, the Commission had received a higher than usual
number of FOI requests and internal review requests, 121 of
which related to similar subject matter as this request.
It was also advised that the Commission had limited capacity
to obtain temporary resourcing and was, at that time,
working on a number of priority matters related to its
functions and the Government’s public service reform
agenda.
Whether the processing
Given the subject matter of the request, being recruitment
work requires the specialist processes in the Federal Court and a public interest
attention of a minister or
disclosure investigation, only a limited number of officers
senior officer, or can only within the Commission had access to potentially relevant
be undertaken by one or
documents and the requisite knowledge and background to
provide context and assistance. These officers all have
more specialist officers in competing responsibilities and would have to have been
an agency who have
diverted from them to assist with the processing of this FOI
competing responsibilities request, together with the other 120 related requests.
The impact that processing As noted above, the Commission was working on a number
a request may have on
of priority matters at the time this request was received with
other work in an agency or limited capacity to obtain additional temporary resourcing.
Minister’s office, including
FOI processing
Additionally, the Commission had also received an unusually
high number of FOI requests and internal reviews, 121 of
which related to similar subject matter as this FOI request.
Whether an applicant has No, the FOI applicant refused to revise their request in
cooperated in framing a
response to the consultation notice and, when the
request to reduce the
Commission sought to engage fol owing notification of the IC
processing workload
review, the FOI applicant referred to their earlier responses
confirming they disagreed that a practical refusal reason
existed.
5
Whether there is a
The Commission does not consider there to be a significant
significant public interest public interest in the documents requested.
in the documents
requested
Whether processing the request would be unreasonable Steps taken by an agency As noted above, the Commission received 121 FOI requests
or Minister to publish
(including internal reviews) for access to documents relating
information of the kind
to the recruitment processes in the Federal Court and a
requested by an applicant public interest disclosure investigation, and released
documents have been published on the Commission’s FOI
disclosure log in accordance with section 11C of the FOI Act.
[Only relevant to
Not applicable
Ministers] Responsibilities of the
Minister and demands on
the Minister’s time, and
whether it is open to the
Minister to obtain
assistance from an agency
in processing the request.
6
