20 March 2025
Wei Rui
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Wei,
Freedom of Information Request – Acknowledgment
Reference: 25 12830
Thank you for your request received 18 March 2025
, in which you are seeking access to documents under
th
e Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic.) (
Act).
In order to be valid under Section 17 of the Act, a request must satisfy three criteria:
1) The request must be in writing;
2) The request must be accompanied by the necessary fee, which is currently
AUD$ 32.70;
and
3) The request must be sufficiently clear to enable us to undertake a search for relevant documents.
Your request clearly meets the first criterion.
FOI PROCESSING FEE
In order to meet the second criterion, the fee can be paid by credit card by online at
https://ecommerce.unimelb.edu.au/foi-application-fee
If you are unable to pay the fee on the basis of hardship, please state your reasons in writing and provide any
evidence that you believe supports your claim (e.g. health care card, pensioner card). You will be informed
as to whether your hardship claim is accepted or not.
SUFFICIENTLY CLEAR TERMS
The third criterion requires us to determine whether your request is sufficiently clear to enable us to
undertake searches for the relevant documents. Once we have had an opportunity to consider your request
in detail, we may need to contact you for further clarification of the terms of your request.
You should also note that FOI requests under the Act must be for documents which are in the possession of
the University and does not cover the generation of new information at the request of applicants.
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia
T: +61 3 8344 4000 F: +61 3 8344 5104 W: www.unimelb.edu.au
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PROCESS AND TIMEFRAMES
To assist you in understanding the FOI legislation, in particular the applicable statutory timeframes once a
request is valid, I have outlined an explanation of some of the sections of the FOI Act below.
a) Decision Making
When the relevant documents have been identified they will then be assessed, and a variety of exemptions
wil be considered. The main exemptions are:
1. Law enforcement documents;
2. Some internal working documents;
3. Documents attracting legal professional privilege, such as legal advice;
4. Documents affecting personal privacy;
5. Material obtained in confidence (but not business, commercial or financial information); and
6. Documents relating to trade secrets (both of University and external entities).
After the University’s consideration of the exemptions under the Act, it could be that some of the relevant
documentation requested cannot be provided to you.
b) Third Parties
Under the Act there are a variety of timeframes applicable to different steps in the process. If practicable to
do so, the University has an obligation to consult with third parties whose personal affairs information is
contained in a document being considered for release through the Act. Under section 33(9) of the Act,
"information relating to the personal affairs of any person" includes information that identifies any person
or discloses their address or location; or from which any person's identity, address or location can reasonably
be determined.
Where consultations are necessary, the legislative timeframe may be extended by 15 days.
Personal affairs information may be exempted if it is considered unreasonable to release.
If a decision is made to release any personal affairs information within the documents (such as a person's
name) and affected individuals do not provide consent to the release, section 33(3) of the Act requires that
affected third parties be provided with 60 days in which to appeal the decision to the Victorian Civil and
Administrative Tribunal (
VCAT). Although a decision may be made to release the material, it must be withheld
for 60 days pending the expiry of the appeal period.
If you are not seeking access to this type of material, then please advise me and the information wil be
removed from the pages as ‘irrelevant material’ before being provided to you.
Businesses and commercial entities are also entitled to appeal decisions. If the documents you are requesting
contain business, commercial or financial information, consultation must be conducted in accordance with
section 34 of the Act. Consultation is required to gain the views of each entity regarding any commercial
disadvantage which might occur if the information was to be released.
If an entity objects to the release of the information and the University makes a decision to disclose, the
entity then has the right to refer the matter to VCAT for review and has 60 days to do so. Until the 60 days
expires, and it is determined that there have not been any appeals lodged, the documents cannot be provided
to the FOI applicant.
Should consultation be required, and the legislative timeframe be extended by 15 days, you wil be notified
of this in writing.
c) Removal of Exempt or Irrelevant Material
Section 25 of the Act provides that exempt and irrelevant material may be deleted (usually referred to as
a redaction) from documents provided to the applicant if:
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia
T: +61 3 8344 4000 F: +61 3 8344 5104 W: www.unimelb.edu.au
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i.
It is practicable to do so, and
ii.
The applicant indicates that they want access to such documents (i.e. with the necessary
redactions).
Please advise me if you are wil ing to accept documents with exempt and irrelevant material deleted, or
whether you insist on receiving unedited documents.
d) Access Charges
Under section 22 of the FOI Act and under the
Freedom of Information (Access Charges) Regulations 2014,
access charges are applicable to FOI requests.
A summary of the charges is as follows:
ITEM
SERVICE
No.
CHARGED FOR
SERVICE DESCRIPTION
CHARGE
If the request relates to a document other
AUD$24.50 per
1.
Search Fees
than a document in relation to which a
charge is applicable under item 7—a charge hour or part
in respect of the search time.
thereof
If the request is in respect of information
that is not available in discrete form in
documents of the agency and the agency
could produce a written document by—
Charge for
The reasonable
(a) the use of a computer or other
costs incurred by
4.
providing
written
equipment that is ordinarily available to the the agency in
document
agency for retrieving or collating stored
providing the
information; or
copy.
(b) making a transcript from a sound
recording held in the agency — a charge in
respect of providing a written document
Under section 22(4) of the FOI Act, if it is estimated that the charges may exceed AUD$50.00, a deposit of
AUD$25.00 is required (if the calculated charge does not exceed AUD$100.00) before the request is further
processed.
If the calculated amount will exceed AUD$100.00, the required deposit amount is 50% of the charge.
Documents are not provided until the applicable charges are paid in full.
When clarification of your terms is received you may receive a further letter informing you of the requirement
to pay a deposit towards the access charges applicable to your request.
For further information, including documents covered by the Act, visi
t http://go.unimelb.edu.au/9sfr.
Kind regards,
FOI Coordinator
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia
T: +61 3 8344 4000 F: +61 3 8344 5104 W: www.unimelb.edu.au
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Document Outline
