Subject to the following provisions of the FOI Act, I have made a decision to create
and grant full access to 1 document.
Reasons for decision
Material taken into account
In making my decision, I have had regard to the following:
• your FOI request dated 5 November 2024
• the FOI Act, in particular section 3, 11, 11A, 15, 17 and 26 of the FOI Act
• the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
section 93A of the FOI Act to which regard must be had in performing a
function or exercising a power under the FOI Act (FOI Guidelines)
• courtesy consultation submissions in relation to the release of the document
dated 15 November 2024
• consultation with the relevant line area of the OAIC.
Searches undertaken
The FOI Act requires that all reasonable steps have been taken to locate documents
within scope of an FOI request.
The following line areas of the OAIC conducted reasonable searches for documents
relevant to you request:
• Monitoring Guidance and Education team.
Searches were conducted across the OAIC’s various document storage systems
including:
• the OAIC’s document holding system – Content Manager
• OAIC’s email system - Microsoft Outlook, including calendar used
• general computer files.
Having consulted with the relevant line areas and undertaken a review of the records
of the various search and retrieval efforts, I am satisfied that a reasonable search has
been undertaken in response to your request.
2
Requests involving the use of computers (s 17)
Under section 17 of the FOI Act, if an FOI request is made for a document that could
be produced by using a computer ordinarily available to the agency for retrieving or
collating stored information, an agency is required to deal with the request as if it
was a request for written documents to which the FOI Act applies.
The FOI Guidelines [at 3.210] explain that section 17 may require an agency to
produce a written document of information that is stored electronically and not in a
discrete written form, if it does not appear from the request that the applicant
wishes to be provided with a computer tape or disk on which the information is
recorded. The obligation to produce a written document arises if:
• the agency could produce a written document containing the information by
using a computer or other equipment that is ordinarily available’ to the
agency for retrieving or collating stored information (section 17(1)(c)(i)), or
making a transcript from a sound recording (section 17(1)(c)(i )); and
• producing a written document would not substantially and unreasonably
divert the resources of the agency from its other operations (section 17(2)).
If those conditions are met, the FOI Act applies as if the applicant had requested
access to the written document and it was already in the agency’s possession.
Your request sought access to the number of FOI requests for which charges were
notified during the period (as reported under section 7. Processing Charges (item
7A)) for each agency, excluding agencies that reported zero in this category from my
request.
The Monitoring Guidance and Engagement team advised me that the material
sought is not available in a discrete form but instead is able to be produced in a
written document through the use of a computer.
In light of this, a document has been created under section 17 in response to your
request.
Disclosure log decision
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires the OAIC to publish documents released under
the FOI Act on the OAIC’s disclosure log within 10 days of release, except if they
contain personal or business information that would be unreasonable to publish.
I have made a decision to publish the document subject to your request on the
OAIC’s disclosure log.
3
Release of document
The document is enclosed for release.
Consultation
I conducted courtesy consultation with affected Commonwealth agencies named in
the document, regarding their business information.
Two agencies provided comments noting potential errors in the data.
• The Department of Health and Aged Care advised they identified an error in
the data captured in the table, due to an agency error when entering their
data into the database. The Department advises their entry in the table
should be
43 charge notices issued. The Department has made an
amendment to the data entry in the database.
• The National Transport Commission (NTC) also identified an error in the data
captured in the table, due to an agency error when entering their data into
the database. The NTC advises their entry in the table should be
Nil charge
notices issued. The NTC will make an amendment to the data entry in the
database.
For the purposes of responding to the FOI request, please note that the document
released to you is based on the data as extracted at the time your FOI request was
received, and the document has
not been amended to reflect the errors raised by the
agencies.
Review rights
Please see the following page for information about your review rights.
Yours sincerely
Karen Tulloch
Assistant Director
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
04 December 2024
4
If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the
FOI Act. An internal review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of
the OAIC who was not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you
wish to apply for an internal review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There
is no application fee for internal review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the
attention of the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that
my decision should be reviewed.
Applications for internal reviews can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5288
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can submit your application by email to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax
on 02 9284 9666.
Further review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner
and the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision (IC
review). If you wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within 60 days.
Your application must provide an address (which can be an email address or fax
number) that we can send notices to and include a copy of this letter. A request for IC
review can be made in relation to my decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it will usually not be in the interests of
the administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal
review decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the
OAIC. For this reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, and the
Information Commissioner is satisfied that in the interests of administration of the
FOI Act it is desirable that my decision be considered by the ART, the Information
Commissioner may decide not to undertake an IC review.
5
Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the Administrative
Review Tribunal for review of an FOI decision, you must first have applied for IC
review.
Applications for IC review can be submitted online at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR
10
Alternatively, you can submit your application to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5288
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Or by email to xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Accessing your information
If you would like access to the information that we hold about you, please contact
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on the Access our information page
on our website.
6
