UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Justin

Thank you for your email below to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department) in which you made request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) (our reference FOI/2019/098).

Invalid Request

Your request, in its current form, does not constitute a valid request as while your request purports to seek documents, it is largely framed as a request for information rather than documents. The FOI Act provides for access to documents and not to information. The Department is therefore unable to treat your request as an FOI request until you specify what documents you are seeking access to. Accordingly, could you please provide more specificity/details concerning the document/s you are seeking access to.

If you wish to make a valid FOI request, please note that it must also meet the requirements in section 15 of the FOI Act. Namely, in order to be considered a valid request under the FOI Act, the application must specify that it is made for the purposes of the FOI Act (s15(2)(a)) and also provide such information about a document as is reasonably required to enable it to be identified (s15(2)(b)).

We also seek that you provides a more detailed timeframe, clearly stating the date from and to, to assist with documents searches.

As your FOI request is not yet valid, the Department has not commenced processing it. We would be grateful for your response by Monday 22 April 2019. If a response is not received by this date, the Department will take no further action in relation to your enquiry.

If you would like assistance to make a valid FOI request, please feel free to contact the Department by return email at [email address].

Kind Regards

FOI Adviser
FOI and Privacy | Legal Policy Branch
Government Division
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
p. +61 2 6271 5849
e. [DPMC request email] |
www.dpmc.gov.au
PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600

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