LEX 11673 Decision letter.pdf

FOI Reference: LEX 11673
File Reference: 24/38120
7 November 2024

Michael James (Right to Know)
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Michael James

Re: Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your request received by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (the department)
on 18 October 2024, for access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to:

‘ … documents containing the results of the stakeholder survey, referred to on p28 of DFAT’s
2022-23, including the views expressed by stakeholders on DFAT’s performance.

I also seek documents which include the ﬁnal list of the organisations/entities consulted as
part of the survey.’

Decision

I am writing to provide you with a decision about your request. After careful consideration, I have
decided to grant you access to an edited copy of the documents, with irrelevant material removed.

Authority

I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.

Reasons

In making my decision I have taken into account:

•  your request; and
•  the documents within the scope of your request; and
•  the FOI Act; and
•  the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A
of the FOI Act (FOI Guidelines).

The reasons for my decision and for the application of FOI exemptions to the documents are set
out below. Where I refer to sections of the FOI Act, these are available at www.legislation.gov.au.

R G Casey Building John McEwen Cres Barton 0221
DFAT.GOV.AU
T +61 2 6261 1111
@DFAT

Irrelevant material (section 22(1)(a)(i ) of the FOI Act)

Some of the material excluded from the documents released to you is outside the scope or could
reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to your request (section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act).

In determining what is relevant to your request, I have taken into account the terms of your
request and the email which you received from the department on 22 October 2024 in which you
were invited to respond if you required the personal information of junior staff from ministerial
offices and government officials not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) or equivalent, including
their email addresses and contact numbers, together with all signatures, mobile phone numbers,
departmental inboxes and technical transmission details including reference numbers.

As you have not stated that you require this information, I have decided to remove it from the
documents being released to you.

Review rights

Information about your review rights is set out in the Attachment for your reference.

Contact

Should you have any queries regarding this matter please contact the Freedom of Information
Section by email (xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx).

Yours sincerely

Simon Johnstone
Assistant Secretary
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

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Attachment

Your review rights

Internal review

You may apply for internal review of the decision (section 54 of the FOI Act). The internal review
application must be made within 30 calendar days from the day you receive this notice.

Where possible, please attach reasons why you believe review of the decision is necessary.
The internal review will be carried out by another officer within 30 days. Any request for internal
review should be directed via email to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx or addressed to:

Freedom of Information Section
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
R G Casey Building
John McEwen Crescent
Barton ACT 0221
Australia

Australian Information Commissioner

You may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to review my decision (section 54L of
the FOI Act). To do this, you must contact the Australian Information Commissioner within 60
calendar days from the day you receive this notice.

You may also make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner about the
Department’s actions in relation to this decision (section 70 of the FOI Act). Making such a
complaint about the way the Department has handled your FOI request is a separate process to
seeking review of my decision.

Further information on applying for an Australian Information Commissioner review is available at:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-of-
information-reviews.

Further information about how to make a complaint is available at:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-of-
information-complaints.

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