OFFICIAL

Mr. Andrew Terhorst

Office of General Counsel
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
GPO Box 367
CANBERRA CITY   ACT   2601

www.airservicesaustralia.com
Dear Mr Terhorst
ABN 59 698 720 886

FOI 24-78 - Decision on Access

Request

On 5 November 2024, you made a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI
Act) for access to documents in the possession of Airservices Australia (Airservices). Your
request sought access to:

1.  What percentage of your executive team and board has been granted exclusive access
to the Chairman's Lounge (Qantas) or the Beyond Lounge (Virgin Australia)?

2.  How often have your executives and board members been given free flights or flight
upgrades by the major airlines for personal travel?

Extension of time

On 3 December 2024, FOI emailed you to explain that Airservices had several open Questions on
Notice (QoN) that included questions covered by the scope of your request e.g. airline lounge
memberships and flight upgrades.

FOI requested a 30-day extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act to process your
request by providing additonal time for the QoN responses to progress.

On 4 December 2024, you agreed by reply email to the extension of time and to the new decision
date of 4 January 2025. As the 4 January 2025 is a Saturday, I am able to defer my decision to the
next available week day i.e. COB Monday 6 January 2025.

Decision

I am authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act and the Airservices Instrument of Delegation and
Authorisation to make decisions on primary requests under the FOI Act.

I have decided not to impose a charge in relation to this request, in accordance with Regulation 8
of the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019.

Access deferred (section 21)

Airservices has undertaken a reasonable search of its records and has located one (1) document
that meets the scope of part 1 of your request (referred to as Document 1 in this letter).

I have made a decision to defer access to this document until a later date under section 21 of the
FOI Act.

Access refused (section 24A)

OFFICIAL

I have decided to refuse access under section 24A of the FOI Act to documents sought by part 2 of
your request on the basis that the documents sought do not exist.

The reasons for my decision are set out in the Statement of Reasons at Attachment A.

Review rights and complaints

Information about your rights of review and how you can make a complaint about the handling of
your request is at Attachment B.

Contact

If you wish to discuss my decision please contact me at xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.

Yours sincerely

KORDARIS_NZ Digitally signed by KORDARIS_NZ
Date: 2025.01.06 17:17:54 +11'00'

Nick Kordaris
Authorised FOI Decision Maker

6 January 2025

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OFFICIAL
ATTACHMENT A

STATEMENT OF REASONS

Material on which the decision is based

I relied on the following material in coming to this decision:
  •  the terms of the request (which I have numbered as part 1 and part 2);
•  the documents subject to the FOI request;
•  the types of information and documents that are in Airservice’s possession;
•  advice from subject matter specialists within Airservices regarding the nature and sensitivity
of the documents subject to the request;
•  the FOI Act; and
•  the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the
FOI Act (FOI Guidelines).

Section 21 – deferment of access

Under section 21(1)(c) of the FOI Act, an agency is able to defer the provision of access to a
document:

(a) if the publication of the document concerned is required by law – until the expiration of
the period within which the document is required to be published; or
(b) if the document concerned has been prepared for presentation to Parliament or for the
purpose of being made available to a particular person or body with the intention that it
should be so made available – until the expiration of a reasonable period after its preparation
for it to be so presented or made available; or
(c) if the premature release of the document concerned would be contrary to the public
interest – until the occurrence of any event after which or the expiration of any period of time
beyond which the release of the document would not be contrary to the public interest.

Document 1 is a draft QoN response relating to airline lounge membership. The draft QoN response
is yet to be considered and approved by the Minister after which it wil  be submit ed to the Senate
Table Of ice. The Senate Table Office will then supply a copy to the senator who asked the question
and arrange for the question and the reply to be printed in Hansard (see No. 12 - Questions –
Parliament of Australia).

Accordingly, I have decided to defer access to Document 1 on the basis that it has been prepared
for the purpose of being made available to a particular person (i.e. to the senator who asked the
question as part of the Questions on Notice process). The applicable deferred access period is the
point at which Document 1 has been submit ed to the Senate Table Of ice.

I note that while access to Document 1 has been deferred, FOI’s email to you on 3 December 2024
provided you with the following information that is within scope of Part 1 of your request:
  1.  Airservices Interim CEO, Mr Rob Sharp, stated on public record at the last Senate Estimates
that no Airservices executive have Qantas Chairman's Lounge memberships (refer to page
116 of the publicly available transcript at Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport
Legislation Commit ee_2024_11_04.pdf;fileType=application/pdf).
  2.  Airservices publishes a register of received gifts and benefits for the CEO and executives on
its website at: https:/ www.airservicesaustralia.com/corporate-publications/ . The register
captures the Chief Executive Of icer’s Qantas Chairman's Lounge membership with the
lastest record of this membership available here.

Section 24A – refuse access

An agency may refuse access if it has taken 'all reasonable steps' to find the document requested,
and is satisfied that the document cannot be found or does not exist (section 24A(1) of the FOI Act).

OFFICIAL

Part 2 of your request seeks documents or information held by Airservices in relation to any free
flights or flight upgrades received by Airservices executives and board members by the major
airlines for personal travel.

FOI’s email to you on 3 December 2024 inadvertently stated that Airservices’ register of received
gifts and benefits includes all executive flight upgrades (personal and business). I’d like to correct
this statement and note that the register only includes upgrades for business travel and that
Airservices does not capture or collate flights or flight upgrades received for personal travel. It is
open to you to refer to Airservices’ register of received gifts and benefits at
https:/ www.airservicesaustralia.com/corporate-publications/ for CEO and executive flight upgrades
received for business travel.

Airservice’s register of received gifts and benefits follows the guidance published by the Australian
Public Services Commission on declaring gifts and benefits in relation to the performance of official
duties (see: Guidance for Agency Heads - Gifts and Benefits | Australian Public Service
Commission).

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OFFICIAL

ATTACHMENT B

INFORMATION ON REVIEW RIGHTS

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) gives you the right to apply for a review of this
decision via:

(a)
an internal review; or
(b)
the Australian Information Commissioner (Information Commissioner).

Internal review

If you apply for internal review, it wil be carried out by a different decision-maker who will make a
fresh decision on your application. An application for review must be:

(a)
made in writing;
(b)
made within 30 days of receiving this letter; and
(c)
sent to xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.

No particular form is required, but it is desirable to set out in the application the grounds upon which
you consider the decision should be reviewed.

If the internal review results in you not being provided access to all of the documents to which you
have requested access, you have the right to seek a review of that decision by the Information
Commissioner.

Information Commissioner review
You can opt to instead seek external review by the Information Commissioner. To seek review you
must apply to the Information Commissioner within 60 days of the receipt of this decision letter.
Further details on this process can be found on their website at ht ps://www.oaic.gov.au/.
You wil also have the opportunity to seek Information Commissioner review of an Internal Review if
you are dissatisfied with its outcome.

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

Information Commissioner

You may also complain to the Information Commissioner concerning action taken by an agency in
the exercise of powers or the performance of functions under the FOI Act. There is no fee for
making a complaint. A complaint to the Information Commissioner must be made in writing. Further
details on this process can be found on their website at https:/ www.oaic.gov.au/.

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Document Outline