OFFICIAL
LEX - 79126
Ash Roth
Via email
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ash Roth
Decision on your Freedom of Information request
I refer to your revised request dated and received by the Office of the Minister for the
Environment and Water (
Minister’s Office) on 10 February 2025, for access under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act) to the following documents:
‘Under the FOI Act, I am seeking copies of all communication between the
Minister/Minister's office and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and its
representatives between the period 1 July 2024 and 18 December 2024.
- Excluding bulk mailout form letters and postcards from ACF members; and
- Limit the request to formal communications related to the amendment or reform
of the EPBC Act (including the Government's Nature Positive reform) received
from ACF.’
My decision
The Minister’s Office holds 6 documents (totalling 71 pages) that relate to your request.
I have decided to grant you part access to all documents with some of the content removed,
as parts of the documents you requested are exempt under the FOI Act as they contain
personal information about other people (s47F).
Please see the schedule at
Attachment A for a detailed list of the documents and the
reasons for my decision.
On 24 December 2024, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and
Water (
department) on behalf of the Minister’s Office, acknowledged your request and
requested a response regarding whether you agree to the removal of staff details under
section 22 of the FOI Act. As you did not respond to this request, staff details have been
deleted in accordance with section 47F of the FOI Act.
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How we will send your documents to you
The documents are
attached.
You can ask for a review of my decision
You may apply directly to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (
OAIC) to
review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be
made in writing within
60 days after the day you are notified of this decision. You can also
make a complaint to the Information Commissioner if you have concerns about how my
Office handled your request.
You can find information about requesting a review, making a complaint, and other
information about FOI on the OAIC websit
e www.oaic.gov.au or phone the OAIC on 1300
363 992.
Further assistance
If you have any questions, please email
xxx@xxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
David McElrea
Deputy Chief of Staff
Office of the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for the Environment and Water
28 February 2025
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Attachment A
LIST OF DOCUMENTS FOR RELEASE
LEX-79126
Doc
Date
Description
Decision
Exemption
Comments
No.
s 47F
Personal information
Letter to the Prime Minister regarding
Information not relevant to the scope of
1.
12/12/2024
the Nature Positive bills (signed by
Release in part
your request eg: details of other
multiple environmental organisations)
signatories and organisations, has been
deleted under s 22 (out of scope)
s 47F
Personal information
Email – Subject: Letter to Prime
Information not relevant to the scope of
Minister regarding Nature Positive bills
2.
2/10/2024
Release in part
your request eg: details of other
and attachment (signed by multiple
signatories and organisations, has been
environmental organisations)
deleted under s 22 (out of scope)
s 47F
Personal information
Letter to the Minister for Environment
Information not relevant to the scope of
and Water – Commissioner for Country
3.
24/07/2024
Release in part
your request eg: details of other
(signed by multiple environmental
signatories and organisations, has been
organisations)
deleted under s 22 (out of scope)
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Doc
Date
Description
Decision
Exemption
Comments
No.
Voice of Country: Commissioner for
4.
July 2024
Release in part
s 47F
Personal information
Country
Email – Subject: ACF submission to
5.
16/07/2024
Senate Committee inquiry, and details
Release in part
s 47F
Personal information
of amendments and attachments
Email – Subject: National Agenda -
6.
18/11/2024
Australian Conservation Foundation
Release in part
s 47F
Personal information
and attachment
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REASONS FOR DECISION
What you requested
‘Under the FOI Act, I am seeking copies of all communication between the
Minister/Minister's office and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and its
representatives between the period 1 July 2024 and 18 December 2024.’
Request consultation process
On 23 January 2025 and 6 February 2025, the department on behalf of the Minister’s Office
wrote to you providing a notice of intention to refuse your request under section 24AB(2) of
the FOI Act as your request was too big to process. You were given an opportunity to
consult with the department to revise your request to remove the practical refusal reason.
Specifically, the department provided several suggestions to assist you with this process.
On 29 January and 10 February 2025 respectively, you revised the scope of your request to
be:
‘Under the FOI Act, I am seeking copies of all communication between the
Minister/Minister's office and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and its
representatives between the period 1 July 2024 and 18 December 2024.
- Excluding bulk mailout form letters and postcards from ACF members; and
- Limit the request to formal communications related to the amendment or reform
of the EPBC Act (including the Government's Nature Positive reform) received
from ACF.’
What I took into account
In reaching my decision, I took into account:
• your original request dated 20 December 2024 and your revised requests on 29
January and 10 February 2025;
• other discussions and correspondence with you on 24 December 2024, 15 and 23, 29
January 2025 and 6 and 10 February 2025;
• the documents that fall within the scope of your request;
• consultation with third parties about documents which contain information
concerning them;
• information about:
o the nature of the documents; and
o the operating environment and functions of the Minister’s Office;
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• guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of
the FOI Act (
Guidelines);
• the FOI Act.
Reasons for my decision
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
I have decided that certain parts of documents that you requested are exempt under the FOI
Act. My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that an exemption applies to those
documents are discussed below.
Section 47F of the FOI Act - unreasonable disclosure of personal information
I have applied the conditional exemption in section 47F(1) to all documents.
Section 47F of the FOI Act relevantly provides:
'(1) A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would involve
the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person (including
a deceased person).
(2) In determining whether the disclosure of the document would involve the
unreasonable disclosure of personal information, an agency or Minister must
have regard to the following matters:
(a) the extent to which the information is well known;
(b) 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;
(c) the availability of the information from publicly accessible sources;
(d) any other matters that the agency or Minister considers relevant.'
Personal Information
The term 'personal information' is defined as follows:
'...information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is
reasonably identifiable:
(a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
(b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.'
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Paragraph 6.125 of the Guidelines provides:
'Personal information can include a person's name, address, telephone number, date
of birth, medical records, bank account details, taxation information and signature.'
I find that the documents contain personal information of other people, in particular their
names, signatures and contact details. In addition, I note that the information that I have
considered exempt, is also about the department’s junior officers.
Whether disclosure is 'unreasonable'
In addition to the factors specified in section 47F(2) of the FOI Act, paragraph 6.133 of the
Guidelines provides:
'The personal privacy exemption is designed to prevent the unreasonable invasion of
third parties' privacy. The test of 'unreasonableness' implies a need to balance the
public interest in disclosure of government-held information and the private interest
in the privacy of individuals.'
I am satisfied that the disclosure of the third-party personal information would be
unreasonable for the following reasons:
• it relates to aspects of an individual's personal affairs;
• you do not have the consent from this individual for the release of their personal
information;
• the information is private and not available in full or in part from publicly
accessible sources;
• the identity of the individual concerned is readily apparent or could be easily
ascertained;
• access to the information allow the individual to be contacted directly and
subject to harassment;
• The Minister’s Office has important work health and safety obligations under the
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) (
WHS Act) and must therefore ensure that
it protects its employees from any harm to their health, safety or welfare;
• I consider that if the relevant personal information were to be disclosed, it would
have significant impacts on the health and wellbeing of the relevant officers. I am
therefore satisfied that withholding access to the personal information would be
consistent with the Minister’s Office’s obligations under the WHS Act; and
• I consider that the negative health and safety impacts upon the Minister’s Office
officers would also have an adverse impact on its ability to effectively fulfil its
functions and activities as:
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o There would be an adverse impact on the operational capabilities of
the Minister’s Office as it would not be able to effectively exercise its
functions if the officers responsible for such functions were exposed
to work health and safety risks.
o It is likely that the exposure of the Minister’s Office officers to work
health and safety risks would impact the ability of their office to
attract and retain staff.
I also note that relevant third parties objected to the release of personal information when
consultation was undertaken during the processing of this request, and I am satisfied that
the individual’s contentions are reasonable in the circumstances.
On this basis, I have decided that the personal information included in the documents and
referred to in the Schedule is conditionally exempt under section 47F(1) of the FOI Act.
Public interest considerations
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.'
When weighing up the public interest for and against disclosure under section 11A(5) of the
FOI Act, I have taken into account relevant factors in favour of disclosure. In particular, I
have considered the extent to which disclosure would:
• promote the objects of the FOI Act;
• inform debate on a matter of public importance.
I have also considered the relevant factors weighing against disclosure, indicating that access
would be contrary to the public interest. In particular, I have considered the extent to which
disclosure could reasonably be expected to:
• prejudice an individual's right to privacy;
• adversely affect or harm the interests of an individual or group of individuals;
• subject public servants to possible unsolicited and/or inappropriate and after
reasonable work hours contact;
• pose significant work health and safety risks to the relevant individuals;
• impact the Minister’s Office’s ability to comply with its obligations under the WHS
Act; and
• impact the Minister’s Office operational capabilities.
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Based on the above factors, I have decided that in this instance, the disclosure of the
documents would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest.
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.
As identified in the document schedule above, I have deleted the exempt information in the
documents and released the remaining material in accordance with section 22(1) of the FOI
Act.
Finally, information not relevant to the scope of your request, which relates to other
organisations and signatories has been deleted in accordance with section 22(1) of the FOI
Act.
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