Dear Grace,

I refer to your request below and in terms of the FOI Act 1982 confirm receipt of it and advise that processing of it commenced on 12 February 2023.

I advise that this acknowledgement relates only to the Barrenjoey part of your request.

Please be advised that, consistent with the provisions of the Information Publication Scheme, the Bank’s policy is to release all documents provided to applicants under the FOI Act 1982 on the Bank’s FOI disclosure log close to the same time they are provided to the applicant. The publication of any FOI related documents on our website will also be notified to the Bank’s RSS feed subscriber list.

In relation to the part of your request concerning 'documents that list any private briefings given by the governor or deputy governor to financial market participants in the past two years', I advise that we do not maintain any lists from the Governor's or Deputy Governor's calendar that categorize appointments, therefore there are no lists in existence in the Bank's records that separately identify meetings with market participants. Accordingly, there are no documents relevant to that part of your request (this notice is our formal advice to you in that regard).

You may, however, be interested to refer to the released copies of the Governor's diary entries on our website (see https://www.rba.gov.au/about-rba/governo...). The website details all professional appointments attended by the Governor going back to July 2021.

Yours sincerely,

Phil Lomas | FOI Officer
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 9744 | e: [RBA request email] | w: www.rba.gov.au

-----Original Message-----
From: Grace <[FOI #9931 email]>
Sent: Saturday, 11 February 2023 2:05 PM
To: FOI <[RBA request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Documents on Private Briefings

⚠ EXTERNAL EMAIL: Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Reserve Bank of Australia,

Could I please ask for any documents that list any private briefings given by the governor or deputy governor to financial market participants in the past two years?

Could I also please request any documents relating to the Governor's comments at the Barrenjoey lunch on 9th February 2023, including any prepared statement and any Q&As or comments made informally.

Yours faithfully,

Grace

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Dear Grace

I refer to your recent request seeking documents relating to the
Governor’s attendance at a lunch hosted by Barrenjoey on 9 February 2023.

I advise that we have discovered two documents relevant to your request
and attach them to this email.

Both are email exchanges between the Bank and Barrenjoey about the
logistics surrounding the lunch. Note that the Governor received no
briefing ahead of the lunch. No notes, recordings or transcripts were made
and it was conducted under the Chatham House rule.

Redactions have been made to both documents in terms of section
[1]37(1)(c) of the FOI Act, to remove email and phone contact details for
any people named in the exchanges. These redactions are made to protect
the personal safety of the people named, given the public environment
around the Reserve Bank at present.

A redaction was also made to document 2 in terms of section [2]47(b)
(commercially sensitive information) to remove the list of clients invited
to the lunch. That list contained names of clients of Barrenjoey, which is
commercially valuable/sensitive and that information ‘would be, or could
reasonably be expected to be, destroyed or diminished if the information
were disclosed’. The ‘valuable information’ is the names and organisations
of the clients and disclosure would likely make them an acquisition target
for competitors to Barrenjoey. The information is therefore exempt from
release in terms of this section and I have decided to deny access to it.

In terms of the FOI Act you have rights to review of my decision if you
are dissatisfied with it, as detailed below.
Internal review

Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the Reserve
Bank of Australia for an internal review of my decision. The internal
review application must be made within 30 days of the date of this email,
and be lodged in one of the following ways:

email: [3][RBA request email]

post: Attn FOI Officer, SD, Reserve Bank of Australia, GPO Box 3947,
Sydney NSW 2001

Where possible, please attach reasons why you believe review of the
decision is necessary. The internal review will be carried out by another
officer within 30 days.

Information Commissioner review

Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian
Information Commissioner to review my decision. An application for review
by the Information Commissioner must be made in writing within 60 days of
the date of this email, and be lodged in one of the following ways:

online:
[4]https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms...

email: [5][email address]

Yours sincerely

Anthony Dickman | Secretary
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 9744 | e: [6][RBA request email] | w: [7]www.rba.gov.au

Disclaimer

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named addressee and could contain information that is confidential or
privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that
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Please notify us immediately by return e-mail if you are not the intended
recipient and delete all copies of the original message and attachments.
This footnote also confirms that this message has been checked for
computer viruses.

References

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