Contact with The Australia Institute and Greenpeace
Dear Department of climate change energy the environment and water,
I am seeking copies of correspondence between the Department and The Australia Institute, and the Department and Greenpeace, on the topic of the reforms of the EPBC Act / the Nature Positive reforms, from 1 January 2024 onwards.
Yours faithfully,
Ash Roth
[SEC=OFFICIAL]
Dear Ash Roth
Acknowledgement of Freedom of Information Request No: LEX 78014
We refer to your request received by the Department of Climate Change,
Energy, the Environment and Water on 25 August 2024 for access to
documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made in the
following terms:
‘I am seeking copies of correspondence between the Department and The
Australia Institute, and the Department and Greenpeace, on the topic of
the reforms of the EPBC Act / the Nature Positive reforms, from 1 January
2024 onwards.’
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The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address which we can send
notices to. You have advised your electronic address is
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Kind regards
FOI Contact Officer
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace
(GPO Box 3090) Parkes ACT 2600 Australia
T 02 6272 4704| E [3][email address]
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ash Roth <[FOI #11947 email]>
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2024 12:08 PM
To: FOI Contact Officer <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Contact with The Australia
Institute and Greenpeace
Dear Department of climate change energy the environment and water,
I am seeking copies of correspondence between the Department and The
Australia Institute, and the Department and Greenpeace, on the topic of
the reforms of the EPBC Act / the Nature Positive reforms, from 1 January
2024 onwards.
Yours faithfully,
Ash Roth
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[SEC=OFFICIAL]
Dear Ash Roth
Please see attached correspondence from the Department of Climate Change,
Energy, the Environment and Water in relation to your FOI request, LEX
78014.
Kind regards
FOI Contact Officer
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace
(GPO Box 3090) Parkes ACT 2600 Australia
T 02 6272 4704| E [1][email address]
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Dear FOI Contact Officer,
I object to the charges proposed.
The Department has identified 30 documents totalling 65 pages with one external party (an average of less than three pages per document). Given the documents involve a public not-for-profit third-party, in no way are they conceivably going to be classified or sensitive documents that require specialist consideration and processing. It is excessive to claim over 18 hours of work is required to process this handful of documents.
The Department is required under the Act to provide information at the "lowest reasonable cost". It is not reasonable to take over 18 hours (or two and a half full days of work) to consider 65 pages.
I ask that this cost is reconsidered, and the documents provided at nil cost given the low volume of documents identified and the likely non-classified nature of the documents.
Yours sincerely,
Ash Roth
[SEC=OFFICIAL]
Dear Ash Roth
Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request – Contention of
Charges
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
(department) acknowledges receipt of your charges contention (below).
The department will consider your contention to waive the preliminary
charges.
Section 29(6) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 provides that the
department must notify you no later than 30 days after the day on which
you notified us of your request to reconsider the preliminary charges that
were issued to you, which was 16 September 2024. This means you can expect
a decision on whether a charge is issued or not on or before 16 October
2024.
During this period, the processing of your FOI request will be paused,
unless you elect to pay the deposit on the preliminary charges decision.
Kind regards
FOI Contact Officer
Legal Division | Corporate, Climate and Energy Branch | Information Law
Team
Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace,
Parkes ACT 2600
GPO Box 3090 ACT 2601
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
T 02 6272 4704 | E [1][DCCEWW request email]
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ash Roth <[FOI #11947 email]>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2024 8:30 AM
To: FOI Contact Officer <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Contact with
The Australia Institute and Greenpeace
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
I object to the charges proposed.
The Department has identified 30 documents totalling 65 pages with one
external party (an average of less than three pages per document). Given
the documents involve a public not-for-profit third-party, in no way are
they conceivably going to be classified or sensitive documents that
require specialist consideration and processing. It is excessive to claim
over 18 hours of work is required to process this handful of documents.
The Department is required under the Act to provide information at the
"lowest reasonable cost". It is not reasonable to take over 18 hours (or
two and a half full days of work) to consider 65 pages.
I ask that this cost is reconsidered, and the documents provided at nil
cost given the low volume of documents identified and the likely
non-classified nature of the documents.
Yours sincerely,
Ash Roth
-----Original Message-----
[SEC=OFFICIAL]
Dear Ash Roth
Please see attached correspondence from the Department of Climate Change,
Energy, the Environment and Water in relation to your FOI request, LEX
78014.
Kind regards
FOI Contact Officer
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace
(GPO Box 3090) Parkes ACT 2600 Australia
T 02 6272 4704| E [1][email address]
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[SEC=OFFICIAL]
[SEC=OFFICIAL]
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Dear Ash Roth
Please see the attached correspondence from the Department of Climate
Change, Energy, the Environment and Water in relation to your FOI request,
LEX 78014.
Kind regards
FOI Contact Officer
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace
(GPO Box 3090) Parkes ACT 2600 Australia
T 02 6272 4704| E [1][email address]
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This email and any attachments may contain information subject to legal
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Dear FOI Contact Officer,
I request that the charges proposed are subject to an internal review.
Specific, I again request that the charges are waived.
In Emmanuel Freudenthal and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Freedom of information) [2019] , the Information Commissioner stated:
“The FOI Guidelines explain that the ‘lowest reasonable cost’ objective should be interpreted broadly in imposing any charges under the FOI Act and that where the cost of calculating and collecting a charge might exceed the cost to the agency to process the request, it would generally be more appropriate not to impose a charge.”
Furthermore, the Commissioner stated:
“In assessing the costs of calculating and collecting a charge, agencies should also take into account the likely costs that may be incurred by the agency, as well as other review bodies, if the applicant decides to seek further review.”
These principles regarding cost assessment are further elaborated upon in subsequent decisions.
The legislative framework for charges and related aspects of the FOI Guidelines is discussed at length in the decision of 'ABX' and Department of Veterans' Affairs (Freedom of information) [2022].
In that decision, the FOI Commissioner explained:
“As a general rule, a charge should not be imposed in circumstances where the cost of assessing, imposing and collecting a charge is likely to be greater than the charge itself. In those circumstances, imposing a charge will generally only serve to delay or discourage access while incurring a net cost to the Commonwealth.”
In determining whether a charge should be imposed, the FOI Commissioner stated:
“Even if a charge could have been correctly imposed by reference to an actual cost of $291.68, the Department should have considered at the outset whether it was preferable to decide that the applicant was liable to pay a charge at all. The amount of that charge should have raised an obvious question in the minds of those considering its imposition – would it cost the Commonwealth an amount greater than the charge itself to assess and notify the charge, provide the applicant with procedural fairness, and collect the charge? The likely answer to that question would have been ‘yes’. In those circumstances, proceeding with a charge would likely only serve to delay access at a net financial cost to the Commonwealth. While the FOI Act and Charges Regulations would not, by their terms, have prevented the Department from deciding the applicant was liable to pay a charge, the preferable decision would have been to decide that the applicant was not liable to pay a charge.”
I also wish to bring to your attention recent IC Review decisions regarding whether a charge has been wrongly assessed.
This includes Paul Farrell and Services Australia (Freedom of information) [2023] , and CropLife Australia and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Freedom of information) [2024] .
Given the extensive case law established by these recent decisions, I strongly urge you to reconsider whether your charge might incur a net financial cost to the Commonwealth. The Information Commissioner has consistently demonstrated a preference for waiving charges when their collection costs could potentially outweigh the processing costs, particularly in cases where the charges were significantly higher than in this case. I believe the same logic applies in this instance, and waiving the charge would align with the principles of fairness, efficiency, and promoting prompt public access to information.
Yours sincerely,
Ash Roth
CR left an annotation ()
This is objectively an incorrect decision to impose charges.
Ash, you can request an internal review of their decision. If you'd like, you can use the reasons I provided to an agency when I contested their charges decision. In that instance, they ultimately decided to waive the fees. You can find my arguments here:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...
If you use my template, just be sure to state that you are seeking an internal review, and adjust the final paragraph to reflect the specific amount of charges associated with your request.
Best of luck.
CR