FOI charges letters
Dear Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,
I request access to the following documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982:
1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.
For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:
2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant contention.
3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or external review.
Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants.
Yours faithfully,
CR
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Dear CR
Acknowledgment of request for access under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth)
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) acknowledges
receipt of your email of Tuesday 01 October 2024 requesting access, under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth), to:
‘1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.
For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:
2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant
contention.
3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or
external review.
Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants.’
Timeframe for processing your request
The ACCC has 30 days to process your request, beginning Tuesday 1 October
2024. This timeframe may be extended by a further 30 days by the ACCC
where consultation with certain third parties is necessary. You will be
advised if we extend the timeframe for third party consultation.
Charges
If the ACCC decides that you should pay a charge to process your request,
we will notify you of the likely cost of processing your request and your
options if you disagree. The statutory timeframe is placed on hold from
when a charges notice is sent to you and resumes at a later time.
We will notify you of any charges in relation to your request as soon as
practicable.
The ACCC has yet to decide whether charges will be imposed for processing
your request. Should any such charges be imposed you will be notified in
due course and you will have the opportunity to request that such charges
be waived or reduced.
Practical refusal
If we are unable to identify the documents you are seeking, or processing
your request would substantially and unreasonably divert the ACCC’s
resources from its other operations, we will send you a notice of our
intention to refuse your request and your options, including if you
disagree.
Decision
A decision maker will assess the documents (if any) to decide if we can
release them, or if they are exempt from release. We will send you the
decision and notify you of your review rights.
We will only release documents once any applicable processing charge is
paid.
If we cannot locate any documents that are covered by the scope of your
request, or if we refuse to confirm or deny the existence of documents, we
will advise you of this and your review rights.
Publication of documents released under FOI
Material released under FOI may be published on our website unless we
consider it unreasonable to do so.
If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact me on
(02) 6243 1244.
Yours sincerely
Sonya Petreski (She/Her)
FOI Officer | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I Monday to Friday
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. https://accc.gov.au/
2. https://www.accc.gov.au/
Dear FOI Officer,
I am writing to amend the scope of my FOI request to assist with its processing.
As I wish to access only recent charge decisions, I have introduced a time frame and clarified the exclusions. I confirm the revised scope of my request as follows:
1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.
For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:
2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant contention.
3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or external review.
The time period for my request is from 1 July 2022 to 1 October 2024.
Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants, including supporting evidence or details of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention.
ii) Emails that attached the charges notices/decision letters.
Please feel free to contact me if you require any clarification or have further questions regarding this request.
Yours sincerely,
CR
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
Please find the attached for your consideration.
Kind regards,
Sonya Petreski (She/Her)
FOI Officer | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I Monday to Friday
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. https://accc.gov.au/
2. https://www.accc.gov.au/
Dear FOI Officer,
Thank you for initiating this consultation process.
I am considering introducing the following exclusions:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants, including supporting evidence or details of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention. (unchanged)
ii) Emails that attached the charges notices/decision letters. (unchanged)
iii) Personal information of third parties and commonwealth staff below SES.
iv) Duplicate documents.
v) Details of third parties.
vi) Business information about third parties.
I kindly decline your suggestion of providing this information in table format.
Please confirm that this will remove the need for third party consultation and eliminate the practical refusal reason.
Yours sincerely,
CR
Dear FOI Team,
I wish to provide clarification as to the scope of my request.
If a preliminary charge notice or decision of a charge is sent via the body of an email (as opposed to an email attachment) I wish to access a copy of that email, as well as the applicant's contention reasons.
Yours sincerely,
CR
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
I refer to your emails of 22 October 2024 and 23 October 2024 in which you
suggested a number of changes to the scope of your FOI request.
Your email of 22 October 2024 appears to be excluding from the scope of
your request the following additional categories of information:
o iii) Personal information of third parties and commonwealth staff
below SES.
o iv) Duplicate documents.
o v) Details of third parties.
o vi) Business information about third parties.
These additional exclusions should assist in reducing the need to consult
with third parties. However, until we receive a final revised request from
you we cannot guarantee that the practical refusal grounds will be
removed.
It is unclear from your email of 23 October 2024, what exactly you are
including in the scope of your request. Are you now also seeking copies of
the contention/fee waiver requests made by applicants? If so, this would
likely broaden the scope of your request and may mean that we would need
to consult with third parties.
We find that having a discussion on the phone generally assists us to
better understand what an applicant is seeking access to. We would be
happy to arrange a time to discuss your request with you. Please let us
know if there is a particular date/time that would suit you best.
We note that the ‘request consultation period’ ends on 5 November 2024.
Please let us know if you require an extension to this period to enable
you to further consider revising the scope of your request.
Kind regards,
Rebecca Fenech (She/Her)
FOI Manager | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I do not work on Wednesdays
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. https://accc.gov.au/
2. https://www.accc.gov.au/
Dear FOI Officer,
Thank you for your email.
In regards to my email of 23 October 2024, I am happy to provide additional information. Most government agencies send charge decisions in an attached PDF "charge decision" letter document. However, some agencies do not attach letter documents, they instead send charge decisions as text in the email body. In my email I wished to provide clarification that these decisions in the email of a body text, as well as the applicants reasons for contending the charge, are within the scope.
Upon further consideration, I have decided that an applicants reasons for contending a charge notice is no longer important to me. Whether your agency attaches decision letters, or provides charge decisions in the body of an email, I no longer wish for an applicants contention reasons to be included in the scope of my request.
I hope this provides necessary clarification. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Yours sincerely,
CR
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
Thank you for your email.
Based on our understanding of your emails dated 22 October 2024, 23
October 2024 and 31 October 2024, we have prepared the below revised scope
for your consideration. Before we begin processing your request again, we
would be grateful if you can please confirm whether you agree to the below
revised scope by Monday, 4 November 2024.
‘1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.
For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:
2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant
contention.
3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or
external review.
Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants, including supporting evidence
or details of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention.
ii) Emails that attached the charges notices/decision letters.
iii) Personal information of third parties and commonwealth staff below
SES.
iv) Duplicate documents.
v) Details of third parties.
vi) Business information about third parties.
vii) an applicant’s charges contention reasons’
Alternatively, we would be happy to extend the ‘request consultation
process’ period if you would like to consider an alternate revised scope.
Please let us know before 4 November 2024 if you would like an extension.
Kind regards,
Rebecca Fenech (She/Her)
FOI Manager | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I do not work on Wednesdays
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
-----Original Message-----
From: CR <[FOI #12113 email]>
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2024 9:23 PM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Re: FOI Request (1007643) - s24 notice of intention to refuse
[SEC=OFFICIAL]
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not
click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know
the content is safe.
Dear FOI Officer,
Thank you for your email.
In regards to my email of 23 October 2024, I am happy to provide
additional information. Most government agencies send charge decisions in
an attached PDF "charge decision" letter document. However, some agencies
do not attach letter documents, they instead send charge decisions as text
in the email body. In my email I wished to provide clarification that
these decisions in the email of a body text, as well as the applicants
reasons for contending the charge, are within the scope.
Upon further consideration, I have decided that an applicants reasons for
contending a charge notice is no longer important to me. Whether your
agency attaches decision letters, or provides charge decisions in the body
of an email, I no longer wish for an applicants contention reasons to be
included in the scope of my request.
I hope this provides necessary clarification. Please let me know if you
have any further questions.
Yours sincerely,
CR
-----Original Message-----
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
I refer to your emails of 22 October 2024 and 23 October 2024 in which you
suggested a number of changes to the scope of your FOI request.
Your email of 22 October 2024 appears to be excluding from the scope of
your request the following additional categories of information:
o iii) Personal information of third parties and commonwealth staff
below SES.
o iv) Duplicate documents.
o v) Details of third parties.
o vi) Business information about third parties.
These additional exclusions should assist in reducing the need to consult
with third parties. However, until we receive a final revised request from
you we cannot guarantee that the practical refusal grounds will be
removed.
It is unclear from your email of 23 October 2024, what exactly you are
including in the scope of your request. Are you now also seeking copies of
the contention/fee waiver requests made by applicants? If so, this would
likely broaden the scope of your request and may mean that we would need
to consult with third parties.
We find that having a discussion on the phone generally assists us to
better understand what an applicant is seeking access to. We would be
happy to arrange a time to discuss your request with you. Please let us
know if there is a particular date/time that would suit you best.
We note that the ‘request consultation period’ ends on 5 November 2024.
Please let us know if you require an extension to this period to enable
you to further consider revising the scope of your request.
Kind regards,
Rebecca Fenech (She/Her)
FOI Manager | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I do not work on Wednesdays
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC [3]www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. [4]https://accc.gov.au/
2. [5]https://www.accc.gov.au/
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[6][FOI #12113 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[7]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. https://accc.gov.au/
2. https://www.accc.gov.au/
3. http://www.accc.gov.au/
4. https://accc.gov.au/
5. https://www.accc.gov.au/
6. mailto:[FOI #12113 email]
7. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
Please find the attached for your consideration.
Kind regards,
Sonya Petreski (She/Her)
FOI Officer | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I Monday to Friday
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. https://accc.gov.au/
2. https://www.accc.gov.au/
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
Confirming receipt of your email advising you wish to withdraw your FOI
request dated 1 October 2024.
We confirm that we have withdrawn you FOI request.
Kind regards,
Rebecca Fenech (She/Her)
FOI Manager | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I do not work on Wednesdays
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
-----Original Message-----
From: CR <[FOI #12113 email]>
Sent: Thursday, November 7, 2024 11:21 AM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Re: FOI Request (1007643) - Charges for processing your freedom
of information request [SEC=OFFICIAL]
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not
click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know
the content is safe.
Dear ACCC,
Request withdrawn. I will be making a new request shortly.
Yours sincerely,
CR
-----Original Message-----
OFFICIAL
Dear CR,
Please find the attached for your consideration.
Kind regards,
Sonya Petreski (She/Her)
FOI Officer | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Ngunnawal Country
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 3131, Canberra ACT 2601
T 02 6243 1244
Hours I Monday to Friday
[1]accc.gov.au
[2]ACCC Logo
The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC [3]www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. [4]https://accc.gov.au/
2. [5]https://www.accc.gov.au/
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[6][FOI #12113 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[7]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
---
IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au
References
Visible links
1. https://accc.gov.au/
2. https://www.accc.gov.au/
3. http://www.accc.gov.au/
4. https://accc.gov.au/
5. https://www.accc.gov.au/
6. mailto:[FOI #12113 email]
7. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...