Our ref: 2022‐111104
FOI‐2022‐10013
OAIC ref: MR22/00465
1 December 2022
Email to: foi+request‐8323‐xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Applicant
I am writing to advise you of my decision following your request for internal review of Mr Gregory
Parkhurst’s decision to refuse access to documents you requested under the
Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (FOI Act).
Summary
I am authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI requests.
You requested access to:
“Other than the Work Practice Manual for complaint management (January 2019)
or the Agency Guide to the PID Act (Version 2), I request access to any operational
or administrative documents that set out how approaches about inadequately
investigated internal disclosures under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 are
handled by the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman.”
You were advised on 22 February 2022 of the decision to refuse access to the documents you
requested. You asked for internal review of that decision on 23 February 2022.
I sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to your request.
I have reviewed the original decision and substitute a decision that the relevant parts of the
document be released, with some parts being redacted under s. 37(2) of the FOI Act.
Relevant documents
I have taken your request to be limited to the Ombudsman’s approach to complaints about other
agency’s handling of a disclosure under the PID Act.
In reviewing our earlier decision, I identified part of 1 document, namely chapter 12 entitled “PID
Handling complaints” of “Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 – Guidance for Authorised Officers,
Investigation Officers and PID Team Members” which fell within the scope of your request. I did this
GPO Box 442 Canberra ACT 2601 ▪ Phone 1300 362 072 ▪ www.ombudsman.gov.au
by searching relevant Ombudsman file access systems and consulting with the Public Interest
Disclosure team.
I advise the Guidance was current as at the date of your original request, but as of 24 March 2022
the procedures were obsolete as a review was commenced.
Material taken into account
I have taken the following material into account in making my decision:
the content of the documents that fall within the scope of your request
relevant sections of the FOI Act
the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the
FOI Act
Decision and reasons for decision
I have decided to partially release the relevant parts of the relevant document. A copy of the
document with redactions is attached.
I have decided to exempt parts of the document under s. 37(2).
That section relevantly says:
(2) A document is an exempt document if its disclosure under this Act would, or could
reasonably be expected to:
(b) disclose lawful methods or procedures for preventing, detecting, investigating, or
dealing with matters arising out of, breaches or evasions of the law the disclosure of
which would, or would be reasonably likely to, prejudice the effectiveness of those
methods or procedures; …
I am of the view that the Public Interest disclosure regime is a process for detecting, investigating
and dealing with wrongdoing, this includes breaches or evasions of the law.
The material in question contains non‐exhaustive list of considerations for officers in dealing with
complaints about agencies handling of disclosures under the PID Act.
The release of information about these matters will disclose procedures and considerations in
deciding whether or not to investigate a complaint about a public interest disclosure.
I consider that the release of the exempted material could significantly prejudice the effectiveness of
the Ombudsman’s Office capacity to fulfill its PID functions by:
Providing information on how/ when to craft a complaint against about an agency’s handling
of a disclosure to maximise the likelihood it will be investigated; and
GPO Box 442 Canberra ACT 2601 ▪ Phone 1300 362 072 ▪ www.ombudsman.gov.au
Agencies may perceive less risk of critical oversight (via the PID complaint process) if they
are able to determine whether complaints about matters are more or less likely to be
investigated.
For these reasons I have varied the original decision and decided to partially release chapter 12 of
the guidance, with exemptions under s. 37(2).
A copy of the document is attached.
Your review rights If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner
for review. An application for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in writing
within 60 days of the date of this letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
online:
https://forms.australia.gov.au/forms/oaic/foi‐review/
email:
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
post:
GPO Box 2999, Canberra ACT 2601
in person:
Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
More information about Information Commissioner review is available on the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner website. Go to www.oaic.gov.au/foi‐
portal/review_complaints.html#foi_merit_reviews.
Questions about this decision
If you wish to discuss this decision, you may contact me using the contact information at the top of
this letter.
Yours sincerely
Polly Porteous
Director, Legal
Commonwealth Ombudsman
GPO Box 442 Canberra ACT 2601 ▪ Phone 1300 362 072 ▪ www.ombudsman.gov.au
