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Freedom of Information (FOI) request
Notice of Decision
Reference: FOI/2024/346
Oliver Smith
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Mr Smith,
I refer to your request dated 23 October 2024 to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request for access under the
FOI Act.
Scope of request
You requested the fol owing:
I seek all briefs from the department provided to the PM or Minister for Indigenous
Australians on the topic of Australia Day 2025 sent since 27 January 2024.
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Material taken into account
In reaching my decision I have had regard to the following:
•  the terms of your request
•  searches and inquires undertaken by the Department
•  the FOI Act
•  the FOI Guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act
(the Guidelines)
Postal Address: PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849   Fax: +61 2 6271 5776   www.pmc.gov.au ABN: 18 108 001 191

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Decision
I have decided to refuse your request under section 24A(1) of the FOI Act, on the grounds that the
Department has taken al  reasonable steps to locate the documents you have requested, and those
documents do not exist.
Reason for decision
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding to refuse your request for access are set out below.
1.  Documents cannot be found or do not exist
Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act provides that:
An agency or Minister may refuse a request for access to a document if:
(a)  all reasonable steps have been taken to find the document; and
(b)  the agency or Minister is satisfied that the document:
(i)  is in the agency’s or Minister’s possession but cannot be found; or
(ii)  does not exist.
In determining what the FOI Act means with respect to ‘al  reasonable steps’, I have had regard to the
Guidelines which discuss the meaning of ‘reasonable’ in section 24A(1)(a). It is not designed to go
beyond the limit assigned by reason, not to be extravagant or excessive, rather to be moderate and of
such an effort to be appropriate or suitable to the circumstances1.
The Department has conducted a search, for any relevant records that would meet the terms of your
request, in the document repositories of the Parliamentary and Government Branch, which is the
Branch most likely to hold documents relating to your request. No documents were found to be
responsive to your request.
As your request relate to documents prepared for the Prime Minister, the Department also conducted
a search for any relevant records meeting the terms of your request within the Parliamentary
Document Management System. This system is used to receive, create and store correspondence to
the Prime Minister. There were no documents found to be in the possession of the Department.
Further, as your request includes a reference to the Minister for Indigenous Australians, the
Department has undertaken inquiries with the First Nations Policy Branch regarding any relevant
records that would meet the terms of your request. They advised, based on their knowledge of the
subject matter connected to the requested documents that there were no documents found to be in

1 Paragraph 3.88 of the Guidelines
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the possession of the Department. You may wish to consider re-directing this part of your request to
the National Indigenous Australians Agency.
I am satisfied that the measures taken by the Department to locate documents in response to your
request under the FOI Act, as outlined above, are appropriate and suitable given the circumstances.
I am refusing your request for access under section 24A(1) of the FOI Act as the documents you have
requested do not exist.
Review rights
If you disagree with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information Commissioner
review of the decision.
Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the Department for an internal review of
my decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days after the date of this letter,
please attach the reasons why you disagree with the decision.
Applications for review should be sent to xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in
writing within 60 days after the date of this letter. You can apply using the OAIC Web Form.2
FOI Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, please let us know what we could
have done better. We may be able to rectify the problem. If you are not satisfied with our response,
you can make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner. A complaint to the
Information Commissioner must be made in writing. You can make a complaint using the
OAIC Web Form.3
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your requests, you can contact the FOI Section by email at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.


2 https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=ICReview&layoutcode=ICReviewWF
3 https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=Complaint&layoutcode=FOIComplaintWF
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Yours sincerely,

David Belgrove
Assistant Secretary
Parliamentary and Government Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
5 December 2024
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Document Outline