Good afternoon Ms Weller.

I refer to your application under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (the Act) requesting access to:

'How "low"is "low"? The message that keeps being propagated to
the community is that we will have to stop living like this when
the numbers "get low enough"? But what does that mean? When will
low be low enough?'

Your application was received on 25 August 2020.

The Act provides that an application fee of $29.60 must accompany each
request. In the current circumstances, the department's preferred method
of payment is via the Victorian Government's online FOI portal at the
below link:

[1]https://online.foi.vic.gov.au/foi/reques...

Please quote your reference number (F20/1416) in the "Request Details"
section of the online form. You do not need to provide the wording of your
request again.

The Act also provides that the application fee may be waived or reduced if
payment of the fee would cause financial hardship. If you consider this to
be the case the fee may be waived or reduced on production of evidence of
how the payment of the application fee would cause you hardship. 

As stated on the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s
website, an applicant should provide evidence of hardship when they are
requesting an agency to waive or reduce the application fee:

‘If you request the application fee to be waived or reduced, you should
provide evidence of hardship – for example, a concession or health care
card, a bank statement, or statutory declaration outlining why payment
would cause you hardship.’

Please note your request cannot proceed until the application fee or
evidence of hardship has been received as it is not a valid request.

Please also note that, due to a high volume of requests, we are currently
experiencing significant delays in processing times. You may be contacted
in the course of processing your request to seek an extension of time for
providing a decision on your request.

I would appreciate it if you would respond by 8 October 2020, otherwise I
will assume that you do not wish to proceed and no further action will be
taken by the department.

Please direct all correspondence relating to your request to
[2][Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email].

Kind Regards,

Authorised Officer

Freedom of Information unit
Executive Services | Legal and Executive Services
Department of Health and Human Services | 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
VIC 3000
e. [3][Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email]

_________________________________________________________________________________

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References

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1. https://online.foi.vic.gov.au/foi/reques...
2. mailto:[Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email]
3. mailto:[Victorian Department of Health and Human Services request email]

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