FOI 1005/23/24
James Smith
foi+requestͲ11534Ͳ63fb7e78@righttoknow.org.au
Dear James,
NOTIFICATION OF A REQUEST CONSULTATION PROCESS – FOI 1005/23/24
I refer to your request for access to the following documents, in the possession of the Department of
Defence (Defence) under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act).
I am an officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
I am writing to tell you that I believe that the work involved in processing your request in its current
form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of this agency from its other
operations due to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ (section 24AA).
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision to do this, you
have 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.
Reason for Intending to Refuse Your Request
In your request, you sought documents relating to:
“All Work Health and Safety notices and reports, including Sentinel Event Incident Reports and
Notifications to Comcare in relation to the MRHͲ90 Taipan helicopter.”
For the purpose of providing this notice, I have considered whether processing your request would
be unreasonable. I consider that processing your request, as it currently stands, would be
unreasonable because the work involved in processing your request in its current form would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations.
Section 24(1) of the FOI Act provides that an agency may refuse to give access to documents in
accordance with an FOI request if:
• a practical refusal reason exists in relation to the request; and
• following a request consultation process under section 24AB of the FOI Act, the agency is
satisfied that the practical refusal reason still exists.
Section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to an FOI
request if the work involved in processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert
the resources of the department from its other operations.
I find that a significant amount of resources would have to be diverted to arrange for the required
searches to be undertaken, to then review any documents that were identified as being possibly
relevant to your request, and finally, to undertake the decision making process on any documents
that did meet the parameters of your request. This assessment is based on the following:
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x Preliminary document searches identified numerous documents that may fall within the
scope of your request. A conservative estimate that each document contains 4 pages and
with 30 seconds to examine each page to determine whether it is within the scope of your
request, this would take an officer of Defence approximately 200 minutes. This does not
include time to consult with any persons in relation to the request, deciding whether to
grant, refuse or defer access, redacting any exempt material from the documents, making
copies etc.
x In addition, the scope of the request indicates ‘all’ documents on this particular subject
matter, which encompasses multiple decades worth of documents, reports, and
notifications. Due to the sensitive nature of these documents, they are not publically
available, and will require significant review prior to consideration of release.
Request Consultation Process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable Defence to process it.
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, Defence will be able to pinpoint
the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to process documents you are not
interested in.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing:
x Withdraw your request
x Make a revised request
x Tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.
The consultation period starts on the day after you receive this notice and ends on 22 July 2024.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from the contact person I have listed below
to revise your request. If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical
refusal reason outlined above, we will recommence processing it. (Please note that 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.)
In your consideration of submitting a revised request, you may like to consider:
“All Work Health and Safety notices and reports, including Sentinel Event Incident Reports
and Notifications to Comcare in relation to the MRHͲ90 Taipan helicopter, from January 2023
Ͳ present.”
If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the consultation period or you do not
consult the contact person during this period, your request will be taken to have been withdrawn.
Contact Officer
If you would to revise your request or have any questions, the contact officer for your request is:
Ryan
Freedom of Information Case Manager
Email: xxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
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Yours sincerely,
Digitally signed by Joanne
Joanne GROVES GROVES
Date: 2024.07.08 16:11:50 +10'00'
Mrs Joanne Groves
Accredited Decision Maker
Army Headquarters
Department of Defence
Russell Offices
R1Ͳ05ͲA PO Box 7910
Canberra BC ACT 2610
