FOI 0075/24/25
Deborah-May Torrens
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Deborah-May,
NOTIFICATION OF A REQUEST CONSULTATION PROCESS – FOI 0075/24/25
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 revised request of 30 July 2024, you sought:
…documents and reports from the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) and the
Australian Army related to:
1. Development, testing, and deployment of Autonomous Weapons Systems between January
1, 2018, and July 24, 2024.
2. Ethical guidelines, risk assessments, and safety protocols associated with the use of
Autonomous Weapons Systems during the same period.
3. Collaborations with external entities (universities, private sector companies, and
international partners) on Autonomous Weapons Systems research and development from
January 1, 2018, to July 24, 2024.
4. Instances of field testing or live deployment of Autonomous Weapons Systems within
Australia, including dates, locations, frequency and outcomes, from January 1, 2018, to July 24,
2024.
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.
2
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.
Searches conducted only within DSTG identified 3315 documents that may fall within the scope of
your request. Using a conservative estimate of two minutes to examine and determine whether each
document is within the scope of your request, would take an officer of Defence approximately 110.5
hours to review the material for relevance alone. This estimate 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. As such, I regard the actual time
required to fulfil this request to be considerably higher than the estimate above and am satisfied that
a practical refusal reason exists in relation to your request.
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 information
that is more specific and date range of 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 of interest.
Before the end of the consultation period, you must do one of the following, in writing:
Withdraw your request
Make a revised request
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 2 September
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:
Providing a shorter targeted date range for documents. For instance, 1 Mar 2020 to 31 Dec
2020.
Narrow Question 3 to a specific university, or name of third party.
3
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
Yours sincerely,
Digitally signed by
maggie.woods maggie.woods
Date: 2024.08.19 15:40:37
+09'30'
Maggie Woods
Accredited Decision Maker
Defence Science and Technology Group
Department of Defence
PO Box 1500
Edinburgh SA 5111
19 August 2024
