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Freedom of Information (FOI) request
Notice of Decision
Reference: FOI/2025/024
Mr Squiggle
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Squiggle
I refer to your request to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 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.
Scope of request
On 3 February 2025, you requested the fol owing:
I request the fol owing documents under the FOI Act for any departmental officials /agency head
who currently holds membership to either the Qantas Chairman's Lounge or Virgin's Beyond lounge.
1. For each of individual, their total number of flights and total expenditure, by airline, for the
most recent available 12 month period. Please also identify the membership(s) they hold.
2. Any documents that detail any assessments made as to the 'estimated value' of these
memberships (including those made by the individuals, or the department).
3. Any documents that detail any reasons for accepting (or declining) invitations to these
exclusive airline lounges.
4. Any documents that are requests for advice from these individuals, or advice given to these
individuals, that touch on whether the memberships are in accordance with applicable
policies in relation to conflict of interest, gifts, etc.
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Postal Address: PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849 Fax: +61 2 6271 5776 www.pmc.gov.au ABN: 18 108 001 191
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Material taken into account
In reaching my decision I referred to the fol owing:
• the terms of your request
• the documents relevant to your request
• the FOI Act
• the Guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act (the
Guidelines)
Documents in scope of request
The Department has identified 13 documents that fal within the scope of your request. These
documents are set out in the Schedule of Documents at Attachment A.
Decision
I have decided to grant access in part, with exempt and irrelevant material deleted, on the basis that
the documents contain information exempt under:
• section 47E (operations of agency) of the FOI Act; and
• section 47F (personal privacy) of the FOI Act.
Reason for decision
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that certain information is exempt or irrelevant is set out
below.
1.
Section 47E – Public interest conditional exemption – operations of agency
Section 47E(d) of the FOI Act provides:
(1) A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would, or could reasonably be
expected to, do any of the following:
(a) (a) prejudice the effectiveness of procedures or methods for the conduct of tests,
examinations or audits by an agency;
(b) (b) prejudice the attainment of the objects of particular tests, examinations or audits
conducted or to be conducted by an agency;
(c) (c) have a substantial adverse effect on the management or assessment of personnel by
the Commonwealth, by Norfolk Island or by an agency;
(d) (d) have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the
operations of an agency.
Section 47E(d) has been applied to internal operational mailbox accounts throughout the documents.
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The Guidelines explain a decision maker is required to assess whether ‘the predicted effect needs to
be reasonably expected to occur.’
1
The release of the operational email accounts would reasonably be expected to result in non-official
communications or public inquiries via these channels, effectively bypassing established channels for
members of the public to contact the Department.
2
These centralised contact measures have been established to ensure areas within the Department are
able to efficiently undertake their daily operations. Disclosure would place additional pressures on
these areas in circumstances where they are not resourced to triage and manage correspondence and
inquiries from members of the public.
Disclosure is reasonably expected to adversely affect the Department’s ability to respond effectively to
urgent official communications that form our daily operations.
I am satisfied a diversion of the resources from the area who owns the operational email account
could reasonably be expected to have an adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of its
operational responsibilities.
2.
Section 47F – Public interest conditional exemption – personal privacy
Subsection 47(1) of the FOI Act provides:
A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would involve the unreasonable
disclosure of personal information about any person (included a deceased person).
For the purposes of the FOI Act, I note ‘personal information’ has the same meaning as in the
Privacy
Act 1988, which is defined as:
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.’
Having identified third party ‘personal information’ within the documents, I have considered the
provisions of subsection 47F(2), which require me to have regard to:
a. the extent to which the information is wel known;
b. whether the person is known to be associated with the matters in the document
c. availability of the information from a public source; and
d. any other matter relevant
1 6.101 of the Guidelines
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PMC website contact page
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The FOI Guidelines note at paragraph 6.133 that “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. In considering what is unreasonable, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in
Re Chandra and Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs stated that:
…whether a disclosure is ‘unreasonable’ requires… a consideration of all the circumstances, including
the nature of the information that would be disclosed, the circumstances in which the information
was obtained, the likelihood of the information being information that the person concerned would
not wish to have disclosed without consent, and whether the information has any current
relevance… it is also necessary in view to take into consideration the public interest recognised by
the Act in the disclosure of information… and to weigh that interest in the balance again the public
interest in protecting the personal privacy of a third party…3
The other key factors for determining whether disclosure is unreasonable include whether:
a) the author of the document is identifiable
b) the documents contain third party personal information
c) release of the document would case stress on the third party
d) no public purpose would be achieved through release.
The documents contain the names and contact information of third parties who work at Qantas.
I have considered the circumstances and find the identified personal information is not well known
and not available from a public source.
I am also satisfied the individuals are not known to be associated with the matters in the documents.
Taking into consideration the above I find the release of this material constitutes an unreasonable
disclosure of personal information (subsection 47F(2)).
I am satisfied parts of the requested documents are conditional y exempt under subsection 47F(1) of
the FOI Act.
3.
Public interest
The FOI Act provides that a conditional y exempt document must nevertheless be disclosed unless its
disclosure would, on balance, be contrary to the public interest
4. In determining whether its disclosure
would be contrary to the public interest, the FOI Act requires a decision-maker to balance the public
interest factors.
As I have decided parts of the documents are conditional y exempt, I am now required to consider the
public interest factors. In doing so I have not considered the irrelevant factors as set out in section
11B(4) of the FOI Act, which are:
3
Re Chandra and Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs [1984] AATA 437 [259]
4 section 11A(5)) of the FOI Act
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a) access to the document could result in embarrassment to the Commonwealth Government, or
cause a loss in 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 documents 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
In applying the public interest, I have noted the objects of the FOI Act
5 and the factors favouring
access as listed in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act. Having regard to the material before me and the
circumstances of the documents found to be conditional y exempt, I am satisfied of the fol owing:
• access would promote the objects of the FOI Act
6 • access may inform debate on a matter of public importance
• the subject matter within the conditional y exempt documents does not offer any insights into
public expenditure
• I am satisfied your personal information is not contained within the conditional y exempt
documents and therefore s 11B(3)(d) is not a relevant factor to favour access
The FOI Act does not set out any public interest factors against disclosure and require agencies to
have regard to the Guidelines to work out if disclosure would, on balance, be contrary to the public
interest
7. The Guidelines contain a non-exhaustive list of factors that, depending on the circumstances
of the documents found to be conditionally exempt, may weigh against disclosure.
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In relation to the information within the documents I have found to be conditionally exempt I consider
the fol owing factors against disclosure:
• disclosure of the internal email addresses could impede the administration and operational
functions of the area within the Department who use the email account daily; and
• disclosure of personal information would prejudice the individuals’ right to privacy.
After careful consideration of al relevant factors, I have decided that, on balance, the factors against
disclosure outweigh those favouring disclosure. Accordingly, I am of the view that disclosure of the
requested document would be contrary to the public interest.
4.
Deletion of irrelevant matter
Section 22 of the FOI Act authorises the Department to give access to an edited copy of a document
if giving access to a document would disclose information that would be reasonably regarded as
irrelevant to the request, and it is possible for the Department to prepare an edited copy, modified by
5 section 3 of the FOI Act
6 section 11B(3)(a) of the FOI Act
7 section 11B(5) of the FOI Act
8 Paragraph 6.233 of the Guidelines
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deletions, ensuring that the edited copy would not disclose any information that would reasonably be
regarded as irrelevant to the request.
On 7 February 2025, the Department advised you of its policy to exclude the personal and direct
contact details of officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) and any Ministerial staff, as well as
any person’s signature, and the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers, which are contained in
documents that fal within the terms of an FOI request. This category of information is identified as
irrelevant, and documents can be modified by the Department to delete the irrelevant material.
I am satisfied parts of the documents are irrelevant under section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act. The
remaining parts of the documents have been released to you as they are relevant to your request.
Review rights
If you disagree with my decision, you may apply for Information Commissioner review of the decision.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in
writing within 60 days after the date of this letter. You can apply using the
OAIC Web Form.9
FOI Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, please let us know what we could
have done better. We may be able to rectify the problem. If you are not satisfied with our response,
you can make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner. A complaint to the
Information Commissioner must be made in writing. You can make a complaint using the
OAIC Web Form.10
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your requests, you can contact the FOI Section by email at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
Karyn Cooper
Chief Financial Officer
9 https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=ICReview&layoutcode=ICReviewWF
10 https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=Complaint&layoutcode=FOIComplaintWF
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Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
3 April 2025
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Document Outline
