Background
I appreciate your cooperation in revising your request following consultation with the
department, namely to exclude personal information of third parties and business
information about third parties.
As advised by the department on 11 October 2024, the department quotes the scope of the
relevant FOI request in charge notices and charge decisions, and this often includes personal
information about individuals other than the FOI applicant as well as information about
businesses. The department invited you to consider excluding the scopes of FOI requests
that are contained in the notices of charges and decisions on charges captured by your
request, to remove the need for the department to undertake consultation under the FOI
Act with those parties. In response, you advised that you wished to exclude the personal
information of third parties.
On 14 October 2024, the department wrote to you to ask whether you would also like to
exclude business information about third parties from the scope of your request. The
department noted that if you exclude business information about third parties from the
scope of your request, this may result in the scope of FOI requests quoted in charge notices
and/or decisions (or parts of them) being redacted. On the same day, you advised that you
wished to exclude business information about third parties.
Processing charge
In accordance with the FOI Act, the department can impose a processing charge for FOI
requests. In this instance, the processing charge would have been relatively small given the
time taken to search for and retrieve the documents and given that the
Freedom of
Information (Charges) Regulation 1982 provides that the first five hours of decision-making
time is free. Accordingly, I have decided not to impose a processing charge for your request
on this occasion.
My decision
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
The department holds 35 documents (totalling 176 pages) that fall within the scope of Parts
1 and 2 of your request. I have decided to grant you
access in full to the documents and
these are
attached.
For completeness, the department does not hold any documents falling within the scope of
Part 3 of your request as none of the decisions captured by Part 2 of your request were
subject to internal or external review.
By email dated 11 October 2024, the department advised you that it would treat the names,
signatures, position titles and contact details of staff members as irrelevant in accordance
with section 22 of the FOI Act unless you advised otherwise. As you did not advise that you
wished to have this information included in the scope of your request, I have redacted the
14.
73 – 78
17 April 2024
Charge notice – LEX 910
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
15.
79 – 84
15 April 2024
Charge notice – LEX 933
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
16.
85 – 89
11 April 2024
Charge notice – LEX 957
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
17.
90 – 94
2 April 2024
Charge notice – LEX 948
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
18.
95 – 99
8 March 2024
Charge notice – LEX 930
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
19.
100 – 106
4 March 2024
Charge notice – LEX 910
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
20.
107 – 111
1 March 2024
Charge notice – LEX 915
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
21.
112 – 116
15 February 2024
Charge notice – LEX 892
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
22.
117 – 121
12 February 2024
Charge notice – LEX 885
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
23.
122 – 126
30 January 2024
Charge notice – LEX 871
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
24.
127 – 131
15 December 2023 Charge notice – LEX 839
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
25.
132 – 136
6 December 2023
Charge notice – LEX 842
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
26.
137 – 142
9 November 2023
Charge notice – LEX 815
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
27.
143 – 147
27 October 2023
Charge notice – LEX 805
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
28.
148 – 152
24 October 2023
Charge notice – LEX 810
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
29.
153 – 157
13 October 2023
Charge notice – LEX 770
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
30.
158 – 163
11 October 2023
Charge notice – LEX 773
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
31.
164 – 165
24 November 2023 Charge decision – LEX 810
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
32.
166 – 167
11 December 2023 Charge decision – LEX 815
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
33.
168 – 170
15 April 2024
Charge decision – LEX 930
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
34.
171 – 173
9 July 2024
Charge decision – LEX 1046
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
35.
174 – 176
19 September 2024 Charge decision – LEX 1099
Grant access in full
Irrelevant material deleted under section 22
Attachment B
YOUR RIGHTS OF REVIEW
Asking for a formal review of an FOI decision
If you believe the decision is incorrect, the FOI Act gives you the right to apply for a review of
the decision. Under sections 54 and 54L of the FOI Act, you can apply for a review of an FOI
decision by:
• an internal review officer in the department and/or
• the Australian Information Commissioner.
There are no fees for applying for a formal review.
Applying for an internal review by an internal review officer
If you apply for internal review, a different decision maker to the decision maker who made
the original decision will review your request. The internal review decision maker will
consider all aspects of the original decision afresh and decide whether the decision should
change.
An application for internal review must be made in writing within 30 days of receiving this
letter. You can lodge your application by email to xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Applying for external review by the Australian Information Commissioner
If you do not agree with the original decision or the internal review decision, you can ask the
Australian Information Commissioner to review the decision.
You will have 60 days to apply in writing for a review by the Australian Information
Commissioner.
You can lodge your application in one of the following ways:
Online:
https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=ICReview&layoutcode=ICReviewWF
Email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Post:
Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
GPO Box 9880, Canberra ACT 2601 | Phone 1300 488 064 | www.education.gov.au | ABN 12 862 898 150
Complaints to the Australian Information Commissioner
Australian Information Commissioner
You may complain to the Australian Information Commissioner about action taken by an
agency in the exercise of powers or the performance of functions under the FOI Act.
A complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner must be made in writing and can be
lodged in one of the following ways:
Online:
https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=Complaint&layoutcode=FOIComplaintWF
Email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Post:
Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
