OFFICIAL

Dear CR

 

Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request No: LEX 32576

 

I refer to your request, received by the Department of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry on 5 November 2024, and then the amended scope
which broadened the scope of your request on 7 November for access to
documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made in the
following terms:

‘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.

 

By way of illustration, please find the table created from the information
provided by another agency for your reference. You can view this image via
WeTransfer here:
[1]https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
(please note this link expires in 7 days.) This table represents the exact
level of information I am requesting.

 

The only information I am requesting 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.

4. Any external review decisions concerning a charge notice or decision.

 

 

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.’

We note that as your amended scope received on 7 November 2024 broadened
the scope of your original request, we have taken your entire request to
be received as at 7 November 2024.

Further information requested

The department cannot access the linked table you have sent through. We
would appreciate if you could email us a copy directly to
[2][email address] so we can consider further.

Your address

The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address which we can send
notices to. You have advised your electronic address is
[3][FOI #12291 email]. We will send all notices
and correspondence to this address.

 

Please advise us as soon as possible if you wish for correspondence to be
sent to another address or if your address changes. If you do not advise
us of changes to your address, correspondence and notices will continue to
be sent to the address specified above.

 

Disclosure log

 

Please note that information released under the FOI Act may be published
in a disclosure log on the department's website. Section 11C of the FOI
Act requires this publication, however it is subject to certain
exceptions, including where publication of personal, business,
professional or commercial information would be unreasonable.

 

Exclusion of junior department employee details

 

The department is working towards ensuring that all employees have a
choice about whether they provide their full name and direct contact
details in response to public enquiries. Where such details are included
in the scope of a request, this may add to processing time and applicable
charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the details are exempt
under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us otherwise, we will
assume that these details are out of scope of your request and they will
be redacted under section 22 of the FOI Act.

 

Further assistance

 

If you have any questions please email [4][email address].

 

Regards,

 

FOI Contact Officer | Legal Division

E: [5][email address]

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