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Our ref: FOI 24-91 (Minnucci)

Office of General Counsel
20 January 2025
GPO Box 367
CANBERRA CITY   ACT   2601

www.airservicesaustralia.com
Cathy Minnucci
ABN 59 698 720 886
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Cathy

FOI 24-91 (Minnucci) - Decision on Access

Request

I refer to your request made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to
Airservices Australia (Airservices) on 17 December 2024.

Your application scope requested documents, as follows:

Could I please obtain a copy of all documents that directly relates to the existing Noise
Monitors in Primrose Sands, Connelly's Marsh and Dunalley TAS from June 2024 to
Dec 2024. This would include location, supplier, calibration levels, actual noise data, results
and findings that were used in ASA's decision making for these areas.

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.

Due date

I note that the due date for our decision on your request is 20 January 2025.

Decision

I have identified eight documents that fall within the scope of your request.

I have decided to provide you partial access to these documents as they contain material that is:

•  Conditionally exempt under section 47F (personal privacy) of the FOI Act, as disclosure of
the material would be contrary to the public interest
•  Irrelevant to the scope of your request under section 22 of the FOI Act.

The documents and my decision in relation to them are set out in the Schedule of Documents at
Attachment A (the Schedule).

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

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 C.

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Contact

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

Yours sincerely

Saira
Delegated FOI Decision Maker

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ATTACHMENT A

SCHEDULE OF DOCUMENTS: FOI 24-91 (Minnucci)

No.
Pages
Description
Decision
Deployment Report for Connelly’s Marsh
Release in part
1.
1-9
NMT Location 46
Section 47F – personal privacy (personal information of Airservices
Date: 15 October 2024
and third-party organisation staff)
Deployment Report for Dunalley
Release in part
2.
1-10
NMT Location 400
Section 47F – personal privacy (personal information of Airservices
Date: 5 October 2024
and third-party organisation staff)
Deployment Report for Primrose Sands
Release in part
3.
1-8
NMT Location 399
Section 47F – personal privacy (personal information of Airservices
Date: 5 October 2024
and third-party organisation staff)
Completion Report for Connelly’s Marsh
Full release
4.
1-21
Version 1
Date range: 7 June 2024 – 12 December 2024
Completion Report for Dunalley
Full release
5.
1-19
Version 1

Date range: 11 June 2024 – 12 December 2024
Completion Report for Primrose Sands
Full release
6.
1-19
Version 1

Date range: 11 June 2024 – 12 December 2024
Noise Data
Full release
7.
Excel
spreadsheet All noise events recorded by STMs

Date range: 7 June 2024 – 12 December 2024

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No.
Pages
Description
Decision
8.
Excel
Correlated Noise Data
Full release
spreadsheet Noise events recorded by STMs that correlate to an Section 22 – irrelevant material (flight numbers and tail numbers)
aircraft, with aircraft details
Date range: 7 June 2024 – 12 December 2024

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ATTACHMENT B

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
•  the documents subject to the FOI request
•  advice from subject matter specialists in our Environmental Assessments team within
Airservices regarding the nature and sensitivity of the documents subject to the request
•  the FOI Act
•  the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the
FOI Act (FOI Guidelines).

Section 22 – irrelevant material

Section 22 of the FOI Act relevantly provides that if an agency may delete information from a
document where it is irrelevant to a request.

I have found that Document 8 identified in the Schedule at Attachment A contains material
irrelevant to your application scope. I have therefore provided you access to this document by
redacting the irrelevant material pursuant to section 22 of the FOI Act.

Section 47F - personal privacy

Section 47F of the FOI Act provides that a document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure would
involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person.

A public servant’s name (i.e. including Commonwealth entity staff) and a staff member’s name of a
third-party organisation, and information about how they can be contacted, is personal information. It
is information about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable (see
section 6 of the Privacy Act 1988).

I am satisfied that Documents 1-3 identified in the Schedule at Attachment A contain conditionally
exempt information under section 47F of the FOI Act, specifically names and signatures of
Airservices and third-party consulting staff members.

Section 47F(2) of the FOI Act provides that in determining whether the disclosure of a document
would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information, an agency must have regard to
the following matters:
  •  the extent to which the information is well-known
•  whether the person/s to whom the information relates is known to be associated with the
matters dealt with in the document
•  the availability of the information from publicly accessible sources
•  any other matters that the agency considers relevant.

I am satisfied that Documents 1-3 contain ‘personal information’ for the purposes of the FOI Act. I
am satisfied that the disclosure of this personal information would be unreasonable, on the basis
that:
  •  the names and signatures of persons identified in the document are not wel-known, nor are
they available from publicly accessible sources.

Accordingly, I am satisfied that the relevant personal information is conditionally exempt under
section 47F(1) of the FOI Act.

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Application of the public interest test

Section 11A(5) of the FOI Act provides:

‘The agency or minister must give the person access to the document if it is conditionally
exempt at a particular time unless (in the circumstances) access to the document at that time
would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest’.

I have therefore considered whether access to the conditionally exempt information would, on
balance, be contrary to the public interest.

Section 11B(3) of the FOI Act sets out the public interest factors that favour access to information,
namely, would the disclosure:
  •  promote the objects of the FOI Act (including all matters set out in sections 3 and 3A of the
FOI Act)
•  inform debate on a matter of public importance
•  promote effective oversight of public expenditure
•  allow a person to access his or her own personal information.

In relation to these factors, I consider that disclosure of the conditionally exempt information would:
  •  help to promote the objects of the FOI Act by demonstrating transparency of government
processes.

However, I consider that the following factors weigh against disclosure of the conditionally exempt
information:
  •  providing access to this personal information would intrude on the privacy of the individuals
to whom the personal information relates, while also not providing any additional insight into
relevant decision-making processes at Airservices.

After considering the public interest factor(s) favouring disclosure, and the factor(s) against
disclosure, I consider that the factor(s) against disclosure outweigh the factor(s) favouring
disclosure, and that disclosure of the conditionally exempt information would, on balance, be
contrary to the public interest.

I am therefore satisfied that Documents 1-3 contain conditionally exempt information under section
47F(1) of the FOI Act. I have therefore provided you access to these documents by redacting the
conditionally exempt information.

For completeness, I have not taken into account any of the irrelevant factors set out in section
11B(4) of the FOI Act in making this decision

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ATTACHMENT C

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