Notice of Decision
REQUEST BY: Deborah-May Torrens
(Right-to-know.org.au)
REFERENCE:
FOI/2425/004
Freedom of Information Act 1982
Dear Deborah-May,
Freedom of information request ref. FOI/2425/004
1. The purpose of this letter is to give you a decision about access to documents that you requested from the
National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
2. I am an officer authorised by the NIAA’s Chief Executive Officer under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make
decisions in relation to FOI requests.
Summary
3. On 12 July 2024, you requested the Attorney-General's Department(AGD) for access to the following
documents:
“I’m contacting You to ask for specific documents, Acts and legislations which allows for an Individual from
any Aboriginal Land Council and/or a RNTBC to register LALC's and RNTBC's with private U.S. companies such
as Duns and Bradstreet, without knowledge or informed consent of Members, Native Title Holders and
Custodians.”
4. On 18 July 2024, the AGD acknowledged your request and advised of transfer to the NIAA.
5. A decision in relation to your request is due on
12 August 2024.
Material taken into account
6. I have taken the following material into account in making my decision:
the terms of your request
the acknowledgement sent to you
document searches undertaken by NIAA advisers
the FOI Act, and
NIAA | Freedom of Information
Guidelines made by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act (FOI
Guidelines).
Decision
7. Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act provides that where all reasonable steps have been taken to find documents,
and the agency is satisfied that documents cannot be found or do not exist, then the agency may refuse a
request for access to the documents.
8. I have decided that the documents you requested access to do not exist (section 24A(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act).
Information about why they do not exist is given below.
Information about why the documents do not exist
9. The NIAA has considered your FOI request and has undertaken internal searches for records that may be
relevant to your request. This included any mechanism, legislation and legislative instruments that might
allow an individual from any Aboriginal Land Council or Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) (also
referred to as Prescribed Bodies Corporate or PBCs), to register any Aboriginal Land Council (including Local
Aboriginal Land Councils or LALCs) and RNTBCs with US companies, such as Dun and Bradstreet. I can confirm
the NIAA does not hold any documents that fall within the scope of your FOI request.
10. RNTBCs have prescribed functions under the
Native Title Act 1993 and the
Native Title (Prescribed Bodies
Corporate) Regulations 1999 and all RNTBCs must be incorporated under the
Corporations (Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006. These are publically available and can be accessed at
https://www.legislation.gov.au/
11. You may also recall I wrote to you on 6 December 2023, in response to your concerns regarding a PBC
appearing on the Dun and Bradstreet Business Directory. I advised I had reviewed the website and Directory,
which appears to be a public open source database and includes information about hundreds of millions of
organisations and businesses from across the globe. The NIAA is not aware what data sources Dun and
Bradstreet uses to compile its Directory.
Information about searches
12. The NIAA searched for documents in the locations set out below:
NIAA parliamentary document management system
NIAA records management systems
Electronic documents saved on computers
13. I am satisfied that the searches undertaken by the NIAA were reasonable, having regard to
the subject matter of the documents you seek, and
the record management systems in place.
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Notice of Decision
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14. I am satisfied that all reasonable steps have been taken to locate documents within the scope of your FOI
request, and that no documents have been identified. Accordingly, I have decided to refuse your request
under subsection 24A(1) of the FOI Act.
15. Your rights to seek review under the FOI Act or submit a complaint are set out in
Attachment A to this notice.
Questions about this decision
16. If you have any questions about this notice or NIAA’s FOI process, please contact the NIAA’s FOI Coordinator
at:
Email:
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Post:
Freedom of Information Coordinator
National Indigenous Australians Agency
GPO Box 2191
Canberra ACT 2601
Yours sincerely
Rachel Kerrigan
Branch Manager
Land and Native Title Branch
9 August 2024
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