Ref: LEX-78014
Ash Roth
Via emai
l: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ash Roth
Your Freedom of Information request – Charges decision
I refer to your request, dated and received by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the
Environment and Water (
department) on 25 August 2024 for access under the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act) to the following documents:
‘I am seeking copies of correspondence between the Department and The Australia
Institute, and the Department and Greenpeace, on the topic of the reforms of the EPBC
Act / the Nature Positive reforms, from 1 January 2024 onwards.’
My decision
I have decided to affirm the charge of $221.83.
The reasons for my decision, including the relevant sections of the FOI Act, are set out in
Attachment A.
Payment details
If you would like the department to continue processing your request, you must respond to the
department within 30 days
after receiving this notice. If you do not respond within 30 days,
your request will be taken to have been withdrawn and no further action will be taken by the
department.
As the charge exceeds $100, you are required to pay a deposit of $55.46.
Payment can be made by direct deposit to:
A/C Name:
DCCEEW Departmental Account
Branch:
London Circuit, Canberra
Bank:
Reserve Bank
BSB:
092 009
A/C No.
147762
ABN No: 63 573 932 849
Please include the FOI reference number (LEX-78014) in the description/reference field when
making payment and send an email with notification of payment
to xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx as soon
as it has been made.
If you are not able to pay by direct debit, please contact the department for assistance.
T +61 2 6274 1111
John Gorton Building
GPO Box 3090
dcceew.gov.au
F +61 2 9094 2221
King Edward Terrace
Canberra ACT 2601
ABN 63 573 932 849
Parkes ACT 2600
Time periods of processing your request
Section 31 of the FOI Act provides that where a notice is sent to an applicant regarding the
payment of a charge in respect of a request, the time limit for processing the request is
suspended from the date the applicant was notified of the charge until:
• the day after the charge (or deposit) is paid; or
• if applicable, where a subsequent review decision has been provided, the day after:
o a charge or deposit has been paid; or
o the applicant is notified of a decision to not impose the charge.
The department notified you in our preliminary assessment of charges that we would be
undertaking third party consultations. Subsection 15(6) of the FOI Act extends the standard
statutory 30-day limit of processing requests by another 30 calendar days. Accordingly, this will
give the department 60 calendar days within which to notify you of its decision on access to
documents.
You can ask for a review of my decision
If you wish to seek an internal review, you must apply to the department within
30 days after
the day you are notified of this decision. An application for internal review must be made in
writing by post to the FOI Officer or emai
l to xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Alternatively, you may apply directly to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(
OAIC) to review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must
be made in writing within
60 days after the day you are notified of this decision. You can also
make a complaint to the Information Commissioner if you have concerns about how the
department handled your request.
You can find information about requesting a review, making a complaint, and other information
about FOI on the OAIC websi
te www.oaic.gov.au or phone the OAIC on 1300 363 992.
You can also make a complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman if you have concerns about
how the Department handled a request for documents under the FOI Act, or took any other
action under the FOI Act. There is no fee for making a complaint to the Commonwealth
Ombudsman.
Information about making a complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman is available in its
website
www.ombudsman.gov.au or phone the Ombudsman on 1300 362 072.
Further assistance
If you have any questions, please emai
l xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Anna-Liisa Lahtinen
Acting Branch Head
Policy and Legislation Branch
Nature Positive Taskforce
16 October 2024
Attachment A
REASONS FOR DECISION
What you requested
‘I am seeking copies of correspondence between the Department and The Australia
Institute, and the Department and Greenpeace, on the topic of the reforms of the EPBC
Act / the Nature Positive reforms, from 1 January 2024 onwards.’
What I took into account
In reaching my decision, I took into account:
• your original request dated 25 August 2024;
• the preliminary assessment of charges dated 13 September 2024;
• your submission for internal review of the charges dated 16 September 2024;
• the documents that fall within the scope of your request;
• consultations with departmental officers about:
o the nature of the documents; and
o the department’s operating environment and functions;
• guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the
FOI Act (
Guidelines);
• the
Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 (
Regulations); and
• the FOI Act.
Reasons for my decision
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
I have decided to affirm the charge of $221.83. My findings of fact and reasons for this decision
are discussed below.
Preliminary assessment of charge
On 13 September 2024, I wrote to you to advise you that I had decided to impose a charge of
$221.83 for processing your request.
My preliminary assessment of that charge was calculated as follows:
Search and retrieval time: 10 hours at $15.00 per hour
$150.00
Decision-making time: $20.00 per hour
Examining pages, redacting and scheduling documents
$71.83
Consultation with one third party at 2 hours per party
$20.00
Writing statement of reasons
$60.00
Deduction of 5 hours decision-making time*
-$100.00
TOTAL
$221.83
*The FOI Act provides that the first five hours of decision-making time are free of charge and this is reflected in the
calculation.
Your contentions
On 16 September 2024, you requested a waiver of the charge for processing your request under
the FOI Act, on the grounds that the charges levied were not reasonable. Specifically, your
correspondence provided:
‘I object to the charges proposed.
The Department has identified 30 documents totalling 65 pages with one external party
(an average of less than three pages per document). Given the documents involve a
public not-for-profit third-party, in no way are they conceivably going to be classified or
sensitive documents that require specialist consideration and processing. It is excessive
to claim over 18 hours of work is required to process this handful of documents.
The Department is required under the Act to provide information at the "lowest
reasonable cost". It is not reasonable to take over 18 hours (or two and a half full days of
work) to consider 65 pages.
I ask that this cost is reconsidered, and the documents provided at nil cost given the low
volume of documents identified and the likely non-classified nature of the documents.’
Financial hardship
Under section 29(5)(a) of the FOI Act, I am required to consider whether payment of the charge
would cause financial hardship to you.
As you have not provided evidence in relation to your financial status, I am not satisfied that the
payment of the charge would cause financial hardship to you.
Public interest
Under section 29(5)(b) of the FOI Act, I am required to consider whether giving access to the
documents would be in the general public interest or the interest of a substantial section of the
public.
As you have not provided any submissions in relation to the public interest in the case of these
documents, I am not satisfied that there is a public interest in the disclosure of the documents.
Other matters
Under section 29(5) of the FOI Act, I may take into account other matters in determining
whether or not to impose the charge.
I have considered your submissions objecting to the charges proposed. Specifically, I have
considered whether the charges imposed are reasonable under the circumstances.
In your submission, you argue that it is not reasonable to take over 18 hours to consider 65
pages. I agree that it would be unreasonable to take over 18 hours to merely assess 65 pages,
however the calculated charges are not only based on the time it takes to assess the documents
for sensitivities, but also a multitude of other tasks involved in processing your request. This
includes the initial searches to find the documents, the sorting and scheduling of the documents,
the preparation and sending of consultation packages and assessment of subsequent
consultation responses, redacting any sensitive material, and the preparation of the final
decision.
You have stated that ‘in no way are [the documents] going to be classified or sensitive
documents that require specialist consideration and processing’. Your assumption that the
documents contain no sensitive material is mistaken as the documents contain the personal
information of third parties, including names and contact details, and this information needs to
be assessed as to whether it is exempt under s47F of the FOI Act. Additionally, we are unable to
pre-empt whether third parties will raise any objections to the release of documents concerning
the business affairs of their organisation, and if they do, their contentions will require
consideration and assessment.
When calculating the original preliminary charges for this matter, I took into account Section 3
of the FOI Act which states that agencies should be guided by the ‘lowest reasonable cost’
objective when assessing charges. Accordingly, the hours charged for searching was significantly
reduced and a conservative estimate applied when considering the future decision-making time.
The standard estimates for consultation and preparation of the statement of reasons have been
used.
Please note that after making my decision on your FOI request where a charge was estimated, I
am required to calculate the final charge based on the actual time taken to process the request. If
the actual processing time is less than what was estimated, a refund of the difference will be
provided to you.
Conclusion
As set out above, I have decided to affirm the charge to $212.83 impose the charge on the basis
that I am satisfied that the initial preliminary charge has been assessed correctly.
