OFFICE OF THE HON CLARE O’NEIL MP
MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
MINISTER FOR CYBER SECURITY
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:
MO24/05/00002
File Number:
ADF2024/126044
Oliver Smith
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Oliver Smith
Freedom of Information (FOI) request – Access Decision
I refer to your correspondence received on 30 May 2024 seeking access to documents held
by the Office of the Minister for Home Affairs (the Minister), under the
Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
Scope of request
You have requested access to the following:
Under the FOI act, I am seeking all correspondence, including emails, from the offices of
the Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and
Multicultural Affairs sent from 1 January 2024 that references "Peter Dutton”.
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request.
Authority to make decision
I am authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions on requests to access
documents or to amend or annotate records.
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the documents relevant to your request
• the FOI Act
• Guidelines published by the Office of the Information Commissioner under section
93A of the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7860 Facsimile: (02) 6273 4144
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Documents in scope of request
I identified two documents as falling within the scope of your request. The documents were
in the possession of the Minister’s Office on 30 May 2024 when your FOI request was
received.
Decision
The Minister’s decision in response to your request is:
• Release two documents in part.
Reasons for Decision
Section 22 of the FOI Act – irrelevant to request
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that if giving access to a document would disclose
information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request, it is possible for
the Minister to prepare an edited copy of the document, modified by deletions, ensuring that
the edited copy would not disclose any information that would reasonably be regarded as
irrelevant to the request.
It is the Minister’s policy to exclude the personal details of officers not in the Senior Executive
Services (SES) of the Of ice of the Minister of Home Affairs, as well as the mobile and work
telephone numbers of SES staff, contained in the documents that fall within the scope of an
FOI request.
I have decided that parts of the documents marked ‘s22(1)(a)(ii)’ would disclose information
that could reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to your request. I have prepared an edited
copy of the documents, with the irrelevant material deleted pursuant to section 22(1)(a)(i ) of
the FOI Act.
The remainder of the documents have been considered for release as this information is
relevant to your request.
Section 47F of the FOI Act – Personal Privacy
Section 47F of the FOI Act provides that a document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure
under the FOI Act would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information of any
person. ‘Personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual,
or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or
not, and whether the information or opinion is recoreded in a material form or not (see section
4 of the FOI Act and section 6 of the
Privacy Act 1988).
I consider that disclosure of the information marked ‘s47F’ in the documents would disclose
personal information relating to third parties.
The FOI Act states that when deciding whether the disclosure of the personal information
would be ‘unreasonable’, I must have regard to the following four factors set out in s47F(2) of
the FOI Act:
(a) The extent to which the information is well known;
(b) Whether the person to whom the information relates is known to be (or to have been)
associated with the matter dealt with in the document;
(c) The availability of the information from publicly accessible sources; and
(d) Any other matters that the Minister considers relevant.
Having considered each of these factors, I consider the information relating to the third parties
is not well known and would only be known to a limited group of people with a business need
to know. As this information is only known to a limited group of people, the individuals
concerned are not generally known to be associated with the matters discussed in the
document. This information is not available from publicly accessible sources. I am saitisfied
that the disclosure of the information within the documents would involve an unreasonable
disclosure of personal information about the third parties.
I have decided that the information referred to above is conditionally exempt under section
47F of the FOI Act. Access to a conditionally exempt document must general y be given unless
it would be contrary to the public interest to do so. I have turned my mind to whether disclosure
of the information would be contrary to the public interest, and have included my reasoning in
that regard below.
The public interest – section 11A of the FOI Act
As I have decided that parts of the documents are conditionally exempt, I am now required to
consider whether access to the conditionally exempt information would be contrary to the
public interest (section 11A of the FOI Act).
A part of a document which is conditionally exempt must also meet the public interest test in
section 11A(5) before an exemption may be claimed in respect of that part. In summary, the
test is whether access to the conditionally exempt part of the document would be, on balance,
contrary to the the public interest.
In applying this test, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act and the importance of the other
factors listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act, being whether access to the documents would
do any of the following:
(a) Promote the objects of the Act (including all the matters set out in sections 3 and 3A)
(b) Inform debate on a matter of public importance;
(c) Promote effective oversight of public expenditure;
(d) Al ow a person to access his or her own personal information.
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Having regard to the above I am satisfied that:
• Access to the documents would promote the objects of the FOI Act.
• The subject matter of the documents may have a general characteristic of public
importance.
• No insights into public expenditure wil be provided through examination of the
documents.
• You do not require access to the documents in order to access your own personal
information.
I have also considered the following factors that weigh against the release of the conditionally
exempt information in the documents:
• Disclosure of personal information which is conditionally exempt under section 47F of
the FOI Act could reasonably be expected to prejudice the protection of third parties’
right to privacy. It is firmly in the public interest that the Minister’s Office uphold the
rights of individuals to their own privacy, and this factor weighs strongly against
disclosure.
• I am satisfied that if I were to release personal information without that person’s
express consent to do so, it would seriously undermine public confidence in the
Minister’s Office’s ability to receive, retain and manage personal information. I consider
such a loss of confidence to be against the public interest, and this factor weighs
strongly against disclosure.
I have also had regard to section 11B(4) which sets our the factors which are irrelevant to my
decision, which are:
(a) Access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth
Government, or cause a loss of confidence in the Commonwealth Government;
(b) Access to the document could result in any person misinterpreting or
misunderstanding the document;
(c) The author of the document was (or is) of high seniority in the agency to which the
request for access to the document was made;
(d) Access to the document could result in confusion or unnecessary debate.
Upon balancing all the above relevant public interest considerations, I have concluded that
the disclosure of the conditionally exempt information in the documents would be contrary to
the public interest and it is therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act.
Legislation
A copy of the FOI Act is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02562. If
you are unable to access the legislation through this website, please contact our office for a
copy.
Your Review Rights
Review by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
You may apply directly to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for a
review of this decision. You must apply in writing within 60 days of this notice.
For further information about review rights and how to submit a request for a review to the
OAIC, please see https:/ www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-
information-rights/freedom-of-information-reviews/internal-review.
Making a Complaint
You may complain to the Australian Information Commissioner about action taken by the
Office of the Minister in relation to your request.
Your enquiries to the Australian Information Commissioner can be directed to:
Phone 1300 363 992 (local call charge)
Email xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
There is no particular form required to make a complaint to the Australian Information
Commissioner. The request should be in writing and should set out the grounds on which it is
considered that the action taken in relation to the request should be investigated and identify
the Minister of Home Affairs as the relevant agency.
Contacting the Office of the Minister
Should you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Section at
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx quoting reference MO24/05/00002.
Kind regards
Authorised decision maker
The Office of the Minister for Home Affairs
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
29 July 2024
