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Glenn Hamiltonshire
via email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Glenn
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST: No. 2024/25-005
ACCESS DECISION
I refer to your request made under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on 4 December 2024 via t
he Right to
Know website1, seeking access to:
The Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides currently used for the National Health and
Medical Research Council.
I am an officer authorised under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
FOI requests.
I have decided to grant full access to 3 documents, grant part access to 4 documents with
redactions made under section 22 of the FOI Act and provide one document under
administrative access. The detail of my decision is provided below.
Timeframe for processing your request
The FOI request was received by NHMRC via email on 4 December 2024. The statutory
timeframe for processing a request is 30 days, starting from the day after the day on which your
request was received. In addition, your request gave consent to extend the processing period by
30 days (under section 15AA of the FOI Act) and the due date was extended to 3 February
2025.
During the processing of your request, NHMRC consulted with 2 third parties affected by the
potential release of the documents. As noted in the FOI Unit’s email sent to you on
31 January 2025, as a result of the consultation, the timeframe for processing your request was
extended by 30 days in accordance with subsection 15(6) of the FOI Act. Accordingly, the due
date for a decision on your request is 4 March 2025.
Decision
In making my decision, I have had regard to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the content of the documents to which you have sought access
• advice from NHMRC officers with responsibility for the matters relating to the documents
to which you sought access
• the views of third parties consulted by NHMRC, where relevant, under section 27 and 27A
of the FOI Act
• the relevant provisions of the FOI Act (accessed via:
www.legislation.gov.au) • the
FOI Guidelines—Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
s 93A of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Guidelines) (accessed via:
www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-guidance-for-
government-agencies/foi-guidelines).
1 URL
: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/ 16 MARCUS CLARKE STREET, CANBERRA ACT 2601
GPO BOX 1421, CANBERRA ACT 2601
xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx
NHMRC.GOV.AU
I have interpreted the scope of your request to include agency wide
Style Guides/Brand
Guides/Writing Guides (i.e., that are currently intended for use across the agency). NHMRC
processes FOI requests on the basis of the documents that exist at the time the FOI request was
made (i.e. 4 December 2024), in line with paragraph 2.43 of the FOI Guidelines.
NHMRC conducted a search of its electronic files, relevant email mailboxes and intranet
webpages in line with the scope of your request. The key search terms used were ‘style guide’,
‘branding guides’, ‘branding guidelines’, ‘writing guides’, ‘writing guidelines’, ‘NHMRC brand’ and
‘logos’.
NHMRC identified 8 documents as falling within the scope of your request. The Schedule of
Documents at Attachment A provides a description of these documents. For the documents
identified, I have decided to:
• grant full access to 3 documents under the FOI Act
• grant part access to 4 documents, with the redaction of irrelevant information under
section 22 of the FOI Act
• provide one document under administrative access.
The detailed reasons for my decision are set out below.
Documents containing irrelevant material (s22)
Section 22 of the FOI Act allows NHMRC to prepare an edited copy of a document, modified by
deletions or redactions, so that the edited copy would not disclose any information that is
reasonably regarded as irrelevant to the request.
I consider the specific names, contact numbers and signatures of any staff from NHMRC, or an
external company, to be irrelevant to the scope of your request. Accordingly, I have decided to
redact such information from documents #01 and #05–07 (identified in Attachment A).
Administrative access
Document #08 (
Australian Government Style Manual, identified in Attachment A) is already
publicly available a
t www.stylemanual.gov.au. Accordingly, it has been provided to you under
administrative access via its URL. As per paragraph 3.2 of the FOI Guidelines, an agency may
choose to provide administrative access to government information, outside the formal FOI Act
request process.
Further information about the documents
NHMRC is aware that document #07 (
Writing and Editing Guide for the NHMRC Website,
identified in Attachment A), was prepared in December 2017 and will require updating to reflect
the most recent Digital Standards and the
Australian Government Style Manual. Please note that
NHMRC’s main source for style/writing guidance is the
Australian Government Style Manual
(document #08).
Please also note that under subsection 91(2) of the FOI Act and section 3.222 of the FOI
Guidelines, disclosure of a document to a person under the FOI Act does not, for the purpose of
the law of copyright, constitute an authorisation or approval to republish the document or to do
an act comprised within the copyright in the document. That is, if you disseminate copyright
material in any document received following an FOI Act request, you will have no FOI Act
protection against an action for breach of copyright.
Charges
I have decided not to impose charges for processing this FOI request.
Your review rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information
Commissioner review of the decision.
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Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to NHMRC for an internal review of
my decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days of the date of this
letter. 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. Please email
a request for internal review to NHMRC’s FOI Unit at
xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. Such an application must be made in writing within 60 days of the date of
this letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
• online:
https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=ICReview&layoutcode=ICReviewWF
• email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx • post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW, 2001.
More information about Information Commissioner review is available on t
he Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner2 website.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way your FOI request has been handled, you can make a complaint
in writing to NHMRC at: complaint
x@xxxxx.xxx.xx. Information on how NHMRC manages
complaints can be found on t
he NHMRC3 website.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a complaint in writing to the Australian
Information Commissioner in one of the following ways:
• online:
https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=Complaint&layoutcode=FOIComplaintWF
• email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
• post: GPO Box 5288 Sydney 2001
More information about FOI complaints is available on t
he Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner4 website.
Questions
If you have any queries or wish to discuss my decision, please contact the NHMRC FOI Unit at
xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Prue Torrance
General Manager
4 March 2025
Attachment
A. Schedule of Documents, including 7 documents
2 URL:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-of-
information-reviews/information-commissioner-review 3 URL:
https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/resources/nhmrc-complaints-policy
4 URL:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-of-
information-complaints
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