Our reference: FOI 24/25-1105
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601
1800 800 110
ndis.gov.au
21 February 2025
Mark Pietsch
Right to Know
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mark Pietsch
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 14 January 2025, in which you requested access
under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National
Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the fol owing documents:
“…1. Internal emails, memos, or directives sent to or from the senior NDIA staff internally
or externally between January 2022 and present that reference:
"Growth Targets"
"Growth Caps"
"Cost Savings"
in relation to NDIS participant numbers, scheme cost or plan utlilisation.
2. Minutes of meetings, briefing notes, or reports prepared for or by senior NDIA
executives that discuss:
Strategies to manage participant growth
Measures to cap funding growth
Cost-saving initiatives and their projected impacts on service delivery or participant
outcomes...”
Practical refusal
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
I am writing to advise that the work involved in processing your request in its current form
would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other
operations due to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of
the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am
writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
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Why I intend to refuse your request
We have conducted preliminary searches of the NDIA’s systems, using all reasonable
search terms that could return documents relevant to your request. In addition, we have
consulted with relevant NDIA staff who could be expected to be able to identify documents
within the scope of the request, including staff who are knowledgeable about how to conduct
searches of the NDIA’s systems.
Those searches indicate that the NDIA has more than
306,229 documents that may be
relevant to your request. This outcome shows that the terms of your request do not provide
sufficient information to allow us to identify the specific documents that you are seeking.
On my reasonable estimate, I consider that there is more than
600,000 pages worth of
material that may fall within the scope of your request as currently worded. At a conservative
estimate of 1 minute per page, this would take an FOI officer more than
10,000 hours to
simply review and collate the documents.
The documents that are assessed as being within scope of the request wil then need to be
reviewed for any sensitivities and possible exemption under the FOI Act and scheduled, we
wil need to consider any consultations and carry these out if required, a decision wil need to
be made on each document, and a decision letter prepared. This wil significantly increase
the hours that it wil take an FOI officer to process your request.
As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would
substantial y and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, the
NDIA wil be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive
resources to process documents you are not interested in.
To reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider:
• A reduced date range (i.e. three months)
• Names or position titles of the specific senior staff that relate to the scope of your
request.
• Exclude Emails
You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
following:
a. withdraw your request
b. make a revised request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.
You can contact me by email
at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
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Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:
Freedom of Information Section
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by
7 March 2025, your FOI request wil be
taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and wil not be dealt with any
further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Cooper
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
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