11 April 2025
Oliver Smith
BY EMAIL: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
In reply please quote:
FOI Request:
FA 24/12/00618
File Number:
FA24/12/00618
Dear Oliver Smith
Freedom of Information (FOI) request – Decision
On 11 December 2024, the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) received a request for
access to a document 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.
1
Scope of request
You have requested access to the following document:
Under the FOI Act, I seek a copy of the Ministerial Brief provided to the office of Home
Affairs Minister Tony Burke on 4/9/24 with the PDR No. MS24-000978.
2
Authority to make decision
I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make decisions in respect of
requests to access document or to amend or annotate records.
3
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the document relevant to the request
• the FOI Act
• Guidelines published by the Office of the Information Commissioner under section 93A
of the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
• advice from Departmental officers with responsibility for matters relating to the
document to which you sought access
• advice from other Commonwealth Departments
PO Box 25 Belconnen ACT 2616 • xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx • www.homeaffairs.gov.au
4
Document in scope of request
The Department has identified one document with five attachments as falling within the scope of
your request. This document was in the possession of the Department on 11 December 2024
when your request was received.
5
Decision
The decision in relation to the document and five attachments in the possession of the
Department which fall within the scope of your request is as follows:
• Release one document and two attachments in part with deletions
• Release two attachments in full
• Release one attachment by providing access to the version of the published document
6
Reasons for Decision
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that the exemption provision applies to that
information are set out below.
6.1 Section 4(1) of the FOI Act – Material Maintained for reference purposes
Section 4(1)(d) of the FOI Act provides that a document for the purpose of the FOI Act does not
include material that is otherwise publicly available.
A document titled
Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment Declaration Criteria falls
within the scope of your request is publicly available on the Department of Home Affairs
website. The document can be accessed using the following link:
6.2 https://www.disasterassist.gov.au/Documents/International-disasters/avtop-
declaration-criteria.pdfSection 7 of the FOI Act – Exemption of certain persons and
bodies
Section 7(2A)(a) of the FOI Act provides that an agency is exempt from the operation of the FOI
Act in relating to a document (an intelligence agency document) that has originated with, or has
been received from, any of the following agencies:
(a) the Australian Secret Intelligence Service
(b) the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
(c) the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security
(d) the Office of National Intel igence
(e) the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation
(f) the Defence Intelligence Organisation
(g) the Australian Signals Directorate.
Section 7(2A)(b) of the FOI Act extends the exemption to apply to documents that contain an
extract from or a summary of an intelligence agency document.
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I am satisfied that the material marked and redacted
‘s7(2A)’ comprises an extract or summary
of a document originating from one of the exempt agencies listed above.
Accordingly, I consider that the Department is exempt from the operation of the FOI Act in relation
to this material. This means that you do not have a right under the FOI Act to obtain access to
these parts of the document.
6.3 Section 47F of the FOI Act – Personal Privacy
Section 47F of the FOI Act provides that a document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure
under the FOI Act would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information of any
person. ‘Personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or
an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and
whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not (see section 4 of the FOI
Act and section 6 of the
Privacy Act 1988).
I consider that disclosure of the information marked
's47F(1)' in the document and at achments
would disclose personal information relating to a third party. The information within the
documents would reasonably identify a person, either through names, positions or descriptions
of their role or employment circumstance.
The FOI Act states that, when deciding whether the disclosure of the personal information would
be ‘unreasonable’, I must have regard to the fol owing four factors set out in s.47F(2) of the
FOI Act:
•
the extent to which the information is well known;
•
whether the person to whom the information relates is known to be (or to have been)
associated with the matters dealt with in the document;
•
the availability of the information from publicly available resources;
•
any other matters that I consider relevant.
I have considered each of these factors below.
The information relating to the third party is not well known and would only be known to a limited
group of people with a business need to know. As this information is only known to a limited
group of people, the individuals concerned are not generally known to be associated with the
matters discussed in the document. This information is not available from publicly accessible
sources.
I do not consider that the information relating specifically to the third party would be relevant to
the broader scope of your request, as you are seeking access to Ministerial Submission
MS24- 000978 rather than information which whol y relates to other individuals.
I am satisfied that the disclosure of the information within the documents would involve an
unreasonable disclosure of personal information about an individual.
I have decided that the information referred to above is conditionally exempt under section 47F
of the FOI Act. Access to a conditionally exempt document must generally be given unless it
would be contrary to the public interest to do so. I have turned my mind to whether disclosure of
the information would be contrary to the public interest, and have included my reasoning in that
regard below.
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6.4 The public interest – section 11A of the FOI Act
As I have decided that parts of the document are conditionally exempt, I am now required to
consider whether access to the conditionally exempt information would be contrary to the public
interest (section 11A of the FOI Act).
A part of a document which is conditionally exempt must also meet the public interest test in
section 11A(5) before an exemption may be claimed in respect of that part.
In summary, the test is whether access to the conditionally exempt part of the document would
be, on balance, contrary to the public interest.
In applying this test, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act and the importance of the other
factors listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act, being whether access to the document would do
any of the following:
(a)
promote the objects of this Act (including all the matters set out in sections 3 and
3A)
(b)
inform debate on a matter of public importance
(c)
promote effective oversight of public expenditure
(d)
allow a person to access his or her own personal information.
Having regard to the above I am satisfied that:
•
Access to the document would promote the objects of the FOI Act.
•
The subject mat er of the document may have a general characteristic of public
importance.
•
Insights into public expenditure wil be provided through examination of the
document.
•
You do not require access to the document in order to access your own personal
information.
I have also considered the following factors that weigh against the release of the conditionally
exempt information in the document:
•
I am satisfied that if the Department were to release personal information without that
person’s express consent to do so, it would seriously undermine public confidence in
the Department’s ability to receive, retain and manage personal information. I
consider such a loss of confidence to be against the public interest, and this factor
weighs strongly against disclosure.
I have also had regard to section 11B(4) which sets out the factors which are irrelevant to my
decision, which are:
a)
access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth
Government, or cause a loss of confidence in the Commonwealth Government
b)
access to the document could result in any person misinterpreting or
misunderstanding the document
c)
the author of the document was (or is) of high seniority in the agency to which the
request for access to the document was made
d)
access to the document could result in confusion or unnecessary debate.
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I have not taken into account any of those factors in this decision.
Upon balancing all of the above relevant public interest considerations, I have concluded that the
disclosure of the conditionally exempt information in the documents would be contrary to the
public interest and it is therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOI Act.
7
Legislation
A copy of the FOI Act is available at https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A02562. If you
are unable to access the legislation through this website, please contact our office for a copy.
8
Your review rights
Internal review
You do not have the right to seek an internal review of this decision. This is because section
54E(b) of the FOI Act provides that, when an agency is deemed to have refused an FOI request
under section 15AC of the FOI Act, the applicant does not have the right to seek an internal
review of the deemed decision.
The Department was deemed to have refused your request under section 15AC of the FOI Act
because it did not make this decision within the statutory timeframes for the request.
While the Department has now made a substantive decision on your request, section 15AC of
the FOI Act continues to apply to your request, which means that any request you make for
internal review wil be invalid.
Information Commissioner review
You can instead request the Australian Information Commissioner to review this decision. If you
want to request an Information Commissioner review, you must make your request to the Office
of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) within 60 days of being notified of this
decision.
You can apply for an Information Commissioner review at: Information Commissioner review
application form on the OAIC website.
If you have already applied for an Information Commissioner review, there is no need to make a
new review request. The OAIC wil contact you shortly to give you an opportunity to advise
whether you wish the review to continue, and to provide your reasons for continuing the review.
You can find more information about Information Commissioner reviews on the OAIC website.
9
Making a complaint
You may make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner if you have concerns
about how the Department has handled your request under the FOI Act. This is a separate
process to the process of requesting a review of the decision as indicated above.
You can make an FOI complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
(OAIC) at: FOI Complaint Form on the OAIC website.
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10 Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Section at
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
Alisha Warner
Position number: 60071849
Department of Home Affairs
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