UNCLASSIFIED
 
Dear Mr Smith
 
Thank you for your email below. Please note that section 7 of the FOI Act
stipulates that intelligence agencies, including ASIS, are exempt from the
operation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, please see below.
 
I refer you to section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982:
 
7  Exemption of certain persons and bodies
(1)  The bodies specified in Division 1 of Part I of Schedule 2, and a
person holding and performing the duties of an office specified in that
Division, are to be deemed not to be prescribed authorities for the
purposes of this Act.
(1A)  For the purposes of the definition of agency, a part of the
Department of Defence specified in Division 2 of Part I of Schedule 2:
(a)  is taken not to be included in the Department of Defence (or in any
other Department) for the purposes of this Act; and
(b)  to avoid doubt, is not an agency in its own right for the purposes of
this Act.
(2)  The persons, bodies and Departments specified in Part II of
Schedule 2 are exempt from the operation of this Act in relation to the
documents referred to in that Schedule in relation to them.
(2AA)  A body corporate established by or under an Act specified in
Part III of Schedule 2 is exempt from the operation of this Act in
relation to documents in respect of the commercial activities of the body
corporate.
(2A)  An agency is exempt from the operation of this Act in relation to
the following documents:
(a)  a document (an intelligence agency document) that has originated
with, or has been received from, any of the following:
(i)  the Australian Secret Intelligence Service;
(ii)  the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation;
(iii)  the Inspector‑General of Intelligence and Security;
(iv)  the Office of National Assessments;
(v)  the Australian Geospatial‑Intelligence Organisation;
(vi)  the Defence Intelligence Organisation;
(vii)  the Australian Signals Directorate
(b)  a document that contains a summary of, or an extract or information
from, an intelligence agency document, to the extent that it contains such
a summary, extract or information…
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Georgina McKay

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