Dear Department of the Treasury,

Please find my request below. In addition, please consider my Request for Administrative Arrangements below.

I request access to the following documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982:

1. All notices of a charge issued to FOI applicants between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024.

For the purposes of my request, a “notice of a charge” refers to a “written notice outlining the preliminary assessment of the charge”, as defined by FOI Guidelines [4.9]. Other terms synonymous with this definition include “charge notice” and “charge letter.”

Specifically, I request the following items from charge notices:

1.i - That the applicant is liable to pay a charge, the preliminary assessment of the charge and the basis for the calculation (FOI Guidelines [4.54a-b]),
1.ii - (if applicable) Any written explanation or justification as to whether the cost of calculating and collecting the charge might exceed the cost to the agency or the Commonwealth (FOI Guidelines [4.114(1)] and [4.4]), and
1.iii - The FOI reference number and date of the letter.

To assist with processing, you may omit the rest of the charge notice. I expect details such as applicant information, the scope of their request, and employee names, signatures, and details to be excluded (s 22).

If multiple charge notices were issued for a single request (e.g., following further review or scope reduction), all charge notices are in scope. Final charge notices (issued after a decision is provided (FOI Guidelines [4.78])) that differ from the previous charge are also in scope.

If your agency administers FOI requests on behalf of another entity (e.g., a minister or departmental sub-branch), such requests are included.

2. All notices of a charge decision issued to FOI applicants between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024.

For the purposes of my request, a “notice of a charge decision” refers to a “written notice of decision to the applicant as to whether the charge will be imposed, reduced or waived” as defined by FOI Guidelines [4.14]. Other terms that can be used synonymously include “charge decision notice” and “charge decision letter.”

Specifically, I request the following items from charge decision letters:

2.i - The decision to impose, reduce or waive a charge, as well as the charge amount,
2.ii - (if applicable) Any written explanation or justification as to whether the cost of calculating and collecting the charge might exceed the cost to the agency or the Commonwealth (FOI Guidelines [4.114(1)] and [4.4]), and
2.iii - The FOI reference number and date of the letter.

To assist with processing, you may omit the rest of the charge decision notice. I expect details such as applicant information, the scope of their request, contention reasons, decision-maker explanation of reasons (except part 2.ii), employee names, signatures, and details, or any information derived from the above (such as details about third parties or supporting evidence of a financial hardship contention) are to be excluded (s 22).

Some agencies, when deciding to waive a charge following an applicant’s contention, may simply state that they have “decided not to impose charges for this request”. Other agencies, in similar circumstances, provide a formal decision notice, including a statement of reasons and review rights. For the purposes of my request, both informal and formal decision notices are within scope.

Additionally, if multiple charge decision letters have been issued for a single request (e.g., following further review or scope changes), all such letters are included in the scope of this request. Charge decisions made under section 55G of the FOI Act are also included.

3. Any internal review decision letters regarding a charge notice or charge decision between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024

Specifically, I request the following items from internal review decision letters:

3.i - The decision to impose, reduce or waive a charge, as well as the charge amount,
3.ii - (if applicable) Any written explanation or justification as to whether the cost of calculating and collecting the charge might exceed the cost to the agency or the Commonwealth (FOI Guidelines [4.114(1)] and [4.4]), and
3.iii - The FOI reference number and date of the letter.

To assist with processing, you may omit the rest of the internal review decision letter, including any background information unrelated to the charge decision. I expect details such as applicant information, the scope of their request, review reasons, decision-maker explanation of reasons (except part 3.ii), employee names, signatures and details, or any information derived from the above, are to be excluded (s 22).

4. Any external review decisions regarding a charge notice or charge decision between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024. This includes decisions not to undertake an IC Review.

I expect details such as applicant information, the scope of their request, review reasons, employee names or details, or any information derived from the above, are to be excluded (s 22) from the scope of my request.

5. All confirmations of payment and refunds between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024.

Any document confirming receipt of payment or refund of payment is included in the scope of my request.

To assist with processing, you may omit the rest of the document. Details of the applicant and their payment details are to be excluded (s 22).

If you are willing, I would prefer this information to be provided administratively, such as in an appendix to the statement of reasons or as a note in a schedule of documents. I would like the following information: whether any payment was made, the amount paid, whether any amount was refunded, and the amount refunded for each request. Please let me know if you are willing to pursue this administratively, and I will confirm withdrawing this part (5) of my request.

In addition to the document-specific exclusions listed above, please exclude the following:

i) Any details about FOI applicants, including, but not limited to personal information and supporting evidence of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention.
ii) Any details about a third party, business, or organisation, including but not limited to their personal information, business information, and commercial affairs.
iii) Any information that may require third-party consultation under the FOI Act.
iv) Any details about any individual, including but not limited to APS staff and signatures.
v) Emails that merely attach charges notices or decision letters.

In many cases, agencies send charge notices and charge decision notices as formal documents (such as PDFs or Word files) attached to an email. The emails themselves typically contain little more than a message like "see attached," and these are not relevant to my request and may be excluded.

However, if a charge notice or charge decision is provided directly in the body of an email (without a formal attachment), the email itself would be in scope. In such cases, the content of the email, as it serves the function of the notice, should be included in my request.

vi) Duplicate documents.
vii) Background information unrelated to charges.

Request for Administrative Arrangements

In lieu of providing all documents requested in parts 1-3 and part 5, I propose an administrative arrangement. I request a table summarising charge estimates, decisions, internal review decisions#, and payment information between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024. The table should contain the following columns:
FOI Reference | Charge Notice Date | Notice Estimate ($) | Charge Decision Date | Charge Decision* | Internal Review Decision Date | Internal Review Decision* | Request Status^ | Notes&

# Internal Review decisions that are unrelated to a charge are irrelevant and must not be included.

* Charge Decision & Internal Review Decision - These should be categorised as:
(1) Waive
(2) Reduce – $(new charge total)
(3) Affirm
(4) Deemed Affirm
(5) Cannot Impose (e.g., when a decision on the request is not made in time)
(6) Other (for complex cases, with notes).

^ Request Status - Enter as follows:
(1) Ongoing (still processing or within the 60-day IC Review timeframe)
(2) Finalised (request is no longer being processed and is outside the 60-day IC Review timeframe)
(3) External Review (provide OAIC/AATA/FCA/FCAFC reference number)
(4) Withdrawn
(5) Deemed Withdrawn
(6) Other (for complex cases, with notes).

& Notes - Include whether any payment was made, the amount paid, whether any amount was refunded, and the amount refunded. Additionally, if you would like to add any submissions regarding a request you are free to add it here.

If multiple charge notices were issued for a single request (e.g., due to scope reduction), each notice should be a new entry in the table. Please include the reason for additional notices in the Notes section. A ‘final charge’ notice (the actual cost of processing) that differs from the previous charge should also be included as a new entry, with an “actual cost” note.

If you agree to this administrative arrangement, I will confirm withdrawing parts 1-3 (except parts 1.ii, 2.ii, 3.ii) and part 5 of my request. The remaining parts of my FOI request would be:

(Parts 1.ii, 2.ii, 3.ii): Any written explanation or justification as to whether the cost of calculating and collecting the charge might exceed the cost to the agency or the Commonwealth (FOI Guidelines [4.114(1)] and [4.4]), and
(Part 4): Any external review decisions regarding a charge notice or charge decision.

Public Interest Factor

I anticipate that some agencies may impose a charge for this request. To pre-empt this, I will provide the following public interest considerations. I allege that some government agencies are incorrectly imposing charges as a means to delay or discourage access to documents, while doing so at a net cost to the Commonwealth. I intend to raise these concerns in a complaint to the OAIC. Your assistance in providing this information will help determine whether your agency is meeting its statutory obligations under the FOI Act.

In CropLife Australia and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Freedom of information) [2024] AICmr 159, the Assistant FOI Commissioner set aside a charge of $701, agreeing that access to documents regarding the Department’s FOI processes was in the public interest, as it would assist in assessing whether the Department was fulfilling its obligations under the FOI Act.

The Assistant Commissioner, Freedom of Information, noted at [24]:
"where there are concerns about whether an agency is carrying out its statutory obligations appropriately with respect to a particular process (such as under the FOI Act), providing access to documents relating to the conduct of those obligations would go beyond merely enhancing transparency by assisting inquiry into whether the agency is adequately fulfilling those obligations. Accordingly, I accept the applicant’s submission that giving access to information that might reveal any deficiencies with respect to the Department’s administration of FOI requests under the FOI Act would be in the general public interest."

Thank you for your consideration of this request. Please let me know if you agree to the administrative arrangement at your earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully,

CR

Dear FOI Officer,

Thank you for your reply. However, I respectfully disagree with your assessment that my request is overly broad. I believe it is already exceptionally narrow and focused, targeting only specific, readily available information related to FOI charges. I'm struggling to understand how it could be further refined.

My request is highly specific and narrowly targeted. I have gone to great lengths to ensure that the scope is as focused as possible, precisely limiting the information I am seeking to only the most essential details.

To further clarify, please find the table created from the information provided by another agency for your reference. You can view this image via WeTransfer here: https://we.tl/t-b0JnQGOLUv. This table represents the exact structure and level of detail I am requesting—nothing more.

The only information beyond this table is:

1.ii, 2.ii, 3.ii: Any written explanation or justification regarding whether the cost of calculating and collecting the charge might exceed the cost to the agency or the Commonwealth (as outlined in FOI Guidelines 4.114(1) and 4.4).
4. Any external review decisions concerning a charge notice or decision.

The information I am seeking is so specific that I cannot envision any reasonable way to narrow it further. It is already confined to extremely limited snippets of information, for the sole purpose of collation into a table.

I trust this clarification will assist in the processing of my request, and I kindly ask that it be reconsidered in light of the minimal nature of the information sought.

Yours sincerely,

CR

Dear FOI Officer,

Thank you for your further correspondence.

I remain unconvinced that locating the relevant records constitutes a substantial workload, especially given the information is contained within your own FOI branch. Your assertion that over 500 matters would need to be reviewed to identify approximately 50 requests seems highly inefficient. Locating records relating to internal FOI administration should not require a manual review of every single FOI request handled by the Treasury. This suggests record-keeping deficiencies in your agency.

My own preliminary research, conducted in minutes, identified a potential solution. All eight charge notices published by your agency on Right to Know contain the word "charge" within the attached document filename. This points to a consistent naming convention. A targeted search of emails with attachments containing "charge" in the filename would likely identify the vast majority, if not all, of the relevant requests. Locating subsequent payment and refund information would then be a simple matter of reviewing the correspondence history for those identified requests.

I believe any practical refusal decision based on these assertions would face significant challenges. While you may claim the work involved is substantial, it's unlikely to meet the threshold of "unreasonable," especially when apparent record-keeping inefficiencies are the primary source of the difficulty. Similarly, any attempt to impose an inflated charge based on these inefficiencies would not withstand scrutiny.

While I confirm my wish to proceed with it as currently worded, I remain open to discussing practical solutions that address genuine, demonstrable obstacles, rather than presumed difficulties based on inefficient processes. I expect your agency to implement reasonable search strategies, such as the one suggested above, before claiming the request is overly burdensome.

Yours sincerely,

CR

Dear FOI Officer,

I amend my request to add part 6.

6. A document that identifies whether any FOI requests, where a charge notice was issued between 1 July 2022 and 5 November 2024, were either withdrawn or deemed withdrawn.

To clarify, I am seeking information on whether a request was withdrawn or deemed withdrawn after a charge notice was issued. This may be demonstrated through:

- Correspondence from your agency confirming the withdrawal or deemed withdrawal of a request, or
- The applicant's email confirming their withdrawal of the request.

If no confirmation has been provided by your agency or the applicant, and the request was deemed withdrawn due to non-response to the charge notice, I request that a document be created under section 17 of the FOI Act, which shows that the request was deemed withdrawn. This information is likely to exist in your FOI database or case management systems in electronic form.

To assist with processing, you may omit the rest of the document beyond what is necessary to show whether the request was withdrawn or deemed withdrawn after a charge notice was issued.

If your agency is willing, I would prefer this information to be provided administratively, such as in an appendix to the statement of reasons or as a note in a schedule of documents. Please let me know if you are open to processing this request administratively, and I will confirm the withdrawal of this part (6) of my request.

Yours sincerely,

CR