AAF Company
(Trustee for the Army Amenities Fund and the Messes Trust Fund)
ABN 82 008 629 490
_______________________________________________________________
THE ARMY AMENITIES FUND (AAF) Company
STATEMENT OF REASONS UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982
1.
I refer to the request by Glenn Hamiltonshire (the applicant), dated and received on 29
November 2024 by the Army Amenities Fund (AAF) Company (the Company) for access
to the following documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act):
Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides currently used for the Australian Military
Forces Relief Trust Fund
FOI decision maker
2.
I am the authorised officer pursuant to section 23 of the FOI Act to make a decision on this
FOI request.
Documents identified
3.
I have identified no documents falling within the scope of the request.
Decision
4.
I have decided to refuse the request under section 24A [requests may be refused if
documents cannot be found, do not exist or have not been received] of the FOI Act.
Material taken into account
5.
In making my decision, I have had regard to:
a.
the terms of the request;
b.
relevant provisions of the FOI Act; and
c.
the Guidelines published by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act (the Guidelines).
REASONS FOR DECISION
Section 24A – Requests may be refused if documents cannot be found, do not exist or have
not been received
6.
Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act states:
(1)
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.
7.
Paragraph 3.94 of the Guidelines advises the detail that this statement of reasons should
include to refuse a request under section 24A(l):
1
…the statement of reasons given to the applicant should sufficiently identify the
document, explain why it cannot be found or is known not to exist or to be in the agency’s
possession, describe the steps the agency took to search for the document, and note the
limitations of any search…
8.
Personnel from the Fund conducted searches. Searches were conducted in the electronic
document record system ‘Objective’ for documents related to the scope of the request.
No documents were identified that matched the request.
9.
I am satisfied that all reasonable steps have been taken to locate the documents sought by
the applicant.
10. I am satisfied that the documents in the scope of the requests do not exist, and refuse the
request under section 24A(1) of the FOI Act.
eamon.lenag Digitally signed by
eamon.lenaghan
han
Date: 2024.12.20 12:34:17
+11'00'
E Lenaghan, CSC
Brigadier
Decision Maker
AAF Company
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