Our reference: FOI 24.25 - 0411
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
ndis.gov.au
29 October 2024
Rob Stewart
Right to Know
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Rob Stewart
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 30 September 2024, in which you requested access
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National
Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the following documents:
“I request all documents from 1 July 2022 to today's date including policy, designs.
correspondence, reports, finding, summaries and briefs associated with codesign
with the disability community.”
Practical refusal
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
I am writing to advise that your request does not provide enough information about the
documents you are seeking as is reasonably necessary to allow us to identify them. I am
also advising that the work involved in processing your request in its current form would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations
due to its size and broad scope. These are called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section
24AA of the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am
writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
I have conducted a preliminary search for documents which are likely to be relevant to your
request. This search has revealed that the NDIA is in possession of more than 1700
individual documents within the scope of your request, not including any at achments which
may be contained within those documents.
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The documents that are assessed as being within scope of the request will then need to be
reviewed for any sensitivities and possible exemptions under the FOI Act, scheduled,
consultations considered and carried out if required, a decision made on each document,
and a decision letter prepared. This wil significantly increase the hours that it wil take an
FOI officer to process your request.
As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
In addition, your request does not currently satisfy section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, as the
terms of your request are too broad,
and we were unable to identify the specific documents
that you may be seeking.
In conducting this preliminary search, we consulted with relevant NDIA staff from the Co-
design and Engagement Division (Co-design) who advised that their division was
established in October 2023. Prior to this date, co-design was assigned to separate business
areas within the NDIA dependent upon the project. This outcome shows that the terms of
your request do not provide sufficient information to allow us to identify the specific
documents that you are seeking.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, the
NDIA wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive
resources to process documents you are not interested in.
To reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider:
• Reducing the time period covered by your request
• Specifying the particular topic of co-design documents you are requesting
You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
following:
a. Withdraw your request
b. Make a revised request
c. Indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.
You can contact me by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:
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Freedom of Information Section
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by
12 November 2024, your FOI request
wil be taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and wil not be dealt with
any further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Lia (LML799)
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
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