Freedom of Information Logs - FOI Request - a Freedom of Information request to Department of Home Affairs

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Your email has been received by the Department of Home Affairs Freedom of
Information (FOI) Section.

The FOI section only responds to valid FOI requests and other matters
relating to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). Visit the
FOI Information on our Website for more information on what [1]information
can be accessed under the FOI Act 1982.

What is a valid FOI request?

A valid FOI request may be for:

- documents you previously provided to the Department as part of a visa
application

- a copy of a decision record made by the Department

- statistical information held by the Department

- papers or briefings the Department prepared.

If your email is a valid FOI request, the Department will contact you
shortly to acknowledge your request.

A valid FOI request must:

o Be in writing and state the request is for consideration under the FOI
Act.
o Have enough information for us to be able to identify the documents
you are seeking.
o Provide a physical or electronic address where we can send our
decision.

Do not send duplicate emails as this may cause longer delays in processing
times.

What is an invalid FOI request?

Invalid FOI requests may include:

- Making a visa application

- Seeking evidence of your Australian Citizenship

- Seeking information about traveling to or departing Australia.

If your email is not specific an FOI request or FOI related matter, the
FOI section will not respond.

What happens next?

Once we receive and have registered your FOI request, we will send you an
acknowledgment letter by email. Read the acknowledgment letter carefully
for further instructions.

FOI requests are generally processed in the order they are received.

We will contact you as soon as the Department has assessed your request
under the FOI Act.

We’re responding to a large volume of requests

Due to the current high volume of requests, we will not provide progress
up-dates on current FOI requests. This is to ensure we are able to
process as many requests as possible, including yours.

If processing your request is going to take us a lot of time and because
it is large or unspecific, it may be refused.

Still have a question or request?

If you still have a question, which has not been answered above, and which
is about the work of the Department, use our general enquiries web page

[2]https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-sup...

You may be able to resolve your enquiry faster using these other resources

We only action and respond to FOI requests that are valid under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982. You may be able to resolve your enquiry
faster by using these resources:

General information about travelling to Australia:

The Department of Home Affairs, “Entering Australia” site
[3]https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/entering...

· For visa and our requirements for entry to Australia
[4]https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/ge...

For a copy of your visa refusal or visa grant letter you should contact
the office where you lodged your visa application.

· To check your current visa details and conditions use the
Department’s Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) portal which can
be accessed [5]here

· If you are experiencing technical difficulties in lodging your
visa application through ImmiAccount, submit your concerns through the
ImmiAccount Technical Support Form, which is accessible [6]here.

· For evidence of your Australian Citizenship please refer [7]here.
The FOI Section does not process these requests.

· For movement records or travel history complete the online
International Movement Records form [8]here. The FOI Section does not
process these requests.

· To update your details, including your Passport details, you can
notify the Department [9]here. The FOI Section does not process these
requests.

We appreciate your feedback

We appreciate your feedback to help improve our services.

If you would like to provide feedback to us please use our Compliments,
complaints and suggestions form.
[10]https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-and-...

Thank you

Information updated 11 January 2022

Important Notice: The content of this email is intended only for use by
the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received
this email by mistake, please advise the sender and delete the message and
attachments immediately. This email, including attachments, may contain
confidential, sensitive, legally privileged and/or copyright information.

Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information
by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
The Department of Home Affairs and ABF respect your privacy and have
obligations under the Privacy Act 1988.

Unsolicited commercial emails MUST NOT be sent to the originator of this
email.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/access-an...
2. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-sup...
3. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/entering...
4. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/ge...
5. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/al...
6. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-sup...
7. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizens...
8. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/entering...
9. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/change-i...
10. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-and-...

OFFICIAL: Sensitive
Personal-Privacy

In reply please quote:
FOI Request: FA 23/05/00498
File Number: FA23/05/00498

Dear Watson Norwood,

Acknowledgement of Freedom of Information Access request

This letter acknowledges that on 6 May 2023 the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) received your request to access documents held by the Department under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). This letter also provides important information about your request.

Scope of request
You have requested access to the following:
I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a complete copy of the departments' Freedom of Information (FOI) logs for the period 2013-2023, including any secondary departments controlled by the agency.

I request that this is provided as a document and not a simple redirect to the agency website as I am of the view that your online disclosure logs do not actively reflect your FOI requests that you have received in this period.

Please note: Your identical FOI request to Australian Border Force (part of Home Affairs) has been merged into this request.

Your request has been allocated FOI request number FA 23/05/00498. Please include your FOI request number in all correspondence with the Freedom of Information Section.
Timeframe

The timeframe for processing a request is 30 days from the day we receive your request, as set out in the FOI Act.

Your review rights in relation to your request are available on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Fees and Charges
Charges do not apply to requests from individuals seeking access to documents about themselves. However, a charge may apply to all other requests for access to documents.
Charges are based on the amount of time the Department spends on your request. Charges can range from $10 to over $1,000 depending on the complexity and scope of your request. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reported that across the public service, the average charge notified was $335.50 in 2020-21.
If a charge applies, you will be issued with a Notice of Charge that explains the charge and your options.
Detailed information about FOI charges that may apply to your FOI request is available on the Department’s website.

We do not provide personal details of staff
The Department’s practice is to exclude the personal details of staff not in the Senior Executive Service (SES), as well as the direct contact details of SES staff, contained in documents that fall within scope of an FOI request. If you require personal details of non-SES officers, or direct contact details of SES staff, please inform us so the decision maker may consider your request. Otherwise we will take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the scope of your request. However names of staff that have previously been released in departmental correspondence may be disclosed.

We do not provide duplicated documents
If the FOI decision-maker deems a document to be a duplicate, they will not assess those pages as part of your FOI request. This means that if a there is a decision to release the document to you, you will receive only one copy, even if multiple copies of that document exist.

Publication of document
Released documents you request may be published to our website
Where documents are released to you in response to your request, the Department may be required to publish these documents on its website within 10 working days in accordance with section 11C of the FOI Act. Publication will not be required where the documents contain personal or business affairs information.

How to reduce or withdraw your request
Reducing the scope of your request can reduce the time and charges associated with processing your FOI request.
To reduce or withdraw your request, contact the FOI section at [Department of Home Affairs request email] and include your FOI request number.

Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss your request you may contact the FOI Section at [Department of Home Affairs request email].

Kind regards,

FOI Officer - Geoff
Freedom of Information
Department of Home Affairs

E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]

Personal-Privacy
OFFICIAL: Sensitive

show quoted sections

OFFICIAL: Sensitive
Personal-Privacy

In reply please quote:
FOI Request: FA 23/05/00498
File Number: FA23/05/00498

Dear Watson Norwood,

You have requested a complete copy of the Department's FOI disclosure logs. The logs are available at: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/access-an...

However, not all FOI access requests have released documents published to the disclosure logs at the link above.

Please specify if instead you require a list, or documents from all FOI requests lodged with the Department during the 2013- 2023 timeframe.

Alternatively, please specify if you are encountering one of the following problems when accessing the disclosure logs:

you are unable to access the documents through the hyperlink above, or
we have not provided a hyperlink due to the size of the documents, or
you are having difficulty reading the documents.

Please respond to this email by Friday 19 May 2023.

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information
Department of Home Affairs

E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]

Personal-Privacy
OFFICIAL: Sensitive

show quoted sections

OFFICIAL: Sensitive
Personal-Privacy

Good afternoon Watson

I refer to your request received on 6 May 2023 for access to documents under the FOI Act.

The current due date for your request is 5 June 2023.

In order for the Department to complete the process of retrieving all the documents that fall within the scope of your request the Department will require additional time to process your request.
The Department seeks your agreement under section 15AA of the FOI Act to extend the timeframe for the processing of your request by 30 days. This would extend the due date for your request to Wednesday 5 July 2023.

It would assist the Department in managing its FOI caseload if you could provide a response to this request by close of business, Monday 5 June 2023

If you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact FOI on the details below.

Personal-Privacy
OFFICIAL: Sensitive

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information
Department of Home Affairs

E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]

Important Notice: The content of this email is intended only for use by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this email by mistake, please advise the sender and delete the message and attachments immediately. This email, including attachments, may contain confidential, sensitive, legally privileged and/or copyright information.

Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. The Department of Home Affairs and ABF respect your privacy and have obligations under the Privacy Act 1988.

Unsolicited commercial emails MUST NOT be sent to the originator of this email.

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OFFICIAL

In reply please quote:

FOI Request: FA 23/05/00498

File Number: FA23/05/00498

Dear Watson Norwood,

I refer to your email dated 6 May 2023, in which you requested access to
documents held by the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).

You have requested access to the following:

I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a
complete copy of the departments' Freedom of Information (FOI) logs for
the period 2013-2023, including any secondary departments controlled by
the agency.

I request that this is provided as a document and not a simple redirect to
the agency website as I am of the view that your online disclosure logs do
not actively reflect your FOI requests that you have received in this
period.

Intention to refuse request

I am writing to advise you that I intend to refuse your request on the
basis that a practical refusal reason exists. However, before I make a
final decision to do this, you have an opportunity to revise your request
to remove the practical refusal reason. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one
of the ways set out below.

Power to refuse request

Section 24 of the FOI Act provides that if the Department is satisfied
that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to a request, the
Department must undertake a consultation process with you, and if, after
that consultation process, the Department remains satisfied that the
practical refusal reason still exists, the Department may refuse to give
you access to the documents subject to the request.

Practical refusal

A practical refusal reason exists under section 24AA of the FOI Act if
either (or both) of the following applies:

(1)(a)(i) the work involved in the processing of the request would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the Department from
its other operations

(1)(b) the request does not satisfy the requirement in section
15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, which requires you to provide such information
concerning the document you are seeking access to, to enable the
Department to be able to identify it.

I consider that the work involved in the processing of the request would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the Department from
its other operations, and accordingly that practical refusal reasons exist
under section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act.

Reasons for practical refusal

The Department has made a preliminary assessment of the documents that
would be captured by your request.

The Department has identified 1560 documents that may be captured by your
request. This assessment results from a search of the Department’s
electronic systems, including emails and other documents.

Whilst the Department has identified that it holds 1560 potentially
relevant documents in its electronic systems, it would take the Department
an average of 3 minutes per document to actually search for and retrieve
each of those relevant documents. As such, I estimate that it would take
the Department an estimated 78 hours to search for, identify and retrieve
the 1560 potentially relevant documents from its electronic systems.

In the event that all these documents would actually be relevant to your
request, a further 312 minutes would be required to collate and create a
schedule of the 1560 potentially relevant documents. This would include
the retrieval of any emails which incorporate attachments and the
collation of those attachments.

In the event that the Department was to continue to process your request,
a decision would need to be made on access to those documents. Based on an
estimate that each document is at least three pages in length, and that
the decision maker would require at least three minutes to review and
assess each page for relevant exemptions, I estimate that it would take at
least 1-2 hours to complete a decision on access to the documents
potentially identified as being relevant to your request.

As such, a minimum total estimated time of 81 hours would be required to
process this request.

I am satisfied that the Department would be required to divert significant
resources from its current operations in order to identify, locate and
collate the documents held within the Department, and to make a decision
on access to those documents. This diversion would result in a significant
drain on the resources of the area within the Department that would be
required to process this request.

I consider that this would result in this request imposing both a
substantial and an unreasonable diversion of resources of the Department
from its other operations and that a practical refusal reason exists in
relation to this request.

You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to
proceed.

Under section 24AB(6) of the FOI Act, you have 14 days to do one of the
following:

· withdraw your request;

· make a revised request;

· indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.

Should you wish to revise your request or have any questions in relation
to this process, please do not hesitate to contact at
[Department of Home Affairs request email].

Yours sincerely,

[Signed electronically]

Joanne

Position Number: 60100057

Authorised Decision Maker

Department of Home Affairs

E:[1][Department of Home Affairs request email]

OFFICIAL

Important Notice: The content of this email is intended only for use by
the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received
this email by mistake, please advise the sender and delete the message and
attachments immediately. This email, including attachments, may contain
confidential, sensitive, legally privileged and/or copyright information.

Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information
by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
The Department of Home Affairs and ABF respect your privacy and have
obligations under the Privacy Act 1988.

Unsolicited commercial emails MUST NOT be sent to the originator of this
email.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Department of Home Affairs request email]

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OFFICIAL

FOI Request: FA 23/05/00498

File Number: FA23/05/00498

Dear Watson Norwood,

Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your email dated 6 May 2023 in which you requested access to
documents held by Department of Home Affairs under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).

You specifically requested access to:

I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a
complete copy of the departments' Freedom of Information (FOI) logs for
the period 2013-2023, including any secondary departments controlled by
the agency.

I request that this is provided as a document and not a simple redirect to
the agency website as I am of the view that your online disclosure logs do
not actively reflect your FOI requests that you have received in this
period.

On 7 June 2023, Department notified you of its intention to refuse your
request on the basis that the work involved in processing your request in
its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources
of Department from its other operations due to its broad nature, size and
complexity.

In particular, Department notified you that, within 14 days of receipt of
that letter, you must advise Department that:

· you wish to make a revised request; or

· indicate that you do not wish to revise your request; or

· withdraw your request.

The 14 day period has now expired. As such, in accordance with section
24AB(7) of the FOI Act, Department considers that your request has been
withdrawn.

This request has been closed in our system.

If you have any enquiries concerning this matter, please do not hesitate
to contact an FOI officer at [1][Department of Home Affairs request email].

Yours sincerely,

[Electronically signed]

Phil

Decision Maker | Position No. 60157242

Authorised FOI Officer - Freedom of Information

FOI and Records Management Branch | Legal Group

Department of Home Affairs | [2]www.homeaffairs.gov.au

Email [3][Department of Home Affairs request email]

[4]signature

OFFICIAL

From: FOI
Sent: Wednesday, 7 June 2023 3:39 PM
To: '[FOI #10264 email]'
<[FOI #10264 email]>
Subject: FA23/05/00498 Practical Refusal Notice [SEC=OFFICIAL]