Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that
your email has been received by the Attorney-General's Department's FOI
Coordinator.

If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in
writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to
access. The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.

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UNCLASSIFIED
13/14748

5 September 2013

Mr G King
Email address: [FOI #375 email]

Dear Mr King
Freedom of Information Request no. FOI13/141

I refer to your request for access to documents relating to Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. I have taken your request to be for:

Access to the interception capability plans (IC plans) of all carriers and nominated carriage service providers given to the Communications Access Co‑ordinator under Part 5‑4 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

We received your request on 3 September 2013 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 3 October 2013. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.
Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be published online on our disclosure log http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtection..., subject to certain exceptions. (For example, personal information will not be published where this would be unreasonable.) We will contact you using the email address you provided. Please advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact. If you have any questions, please contact the following officer:
Elise Perry by email [AGD request email].

Kind Regards

FOI Contact Officer

Freedom of Information and Privacy Section | Office of Corporate Counsel Attorney-General's Department | 3 - 5 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600
Email: [AGD request email]

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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr King,

Please find attached the decision letter in relation to your below request for access to the interception capability plans (IC plans) of all carriers and nominated carriage service providers given to the Communications Access Coordinator under Part 5‑4 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please email [AGD request email].

Kind Regards,
FOI Contact Officer
FOI & Privacy Section
Attorney-General’s Department

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr King,

Thank you for your response to the section 24AB FOI Act notice for a
revised scope. You have sought to narrow the scope of your request to the
specific date range of “August 2012 to present.” I have taken your request
to be:

“access to the interception capability plans (IC Plans) of all carriers
and nominated carriage service providers given to the Communications
Access Coordination under Part 5-4 of the Telecommunications (Interception
and Access) Act 1979 from August 2012 to present.”

Notification of Intention to make a Practical Refusal Decision

I can advise that the revision of your scope to the date range of “August
2012 to present” has not sufficiently reduced the scope of the request so
that processing it is not a substantial and unreasonable diversion of
resources.  In the previous correspondence we identified that your request
covered an estimated 1512 documents. This estimate was calculated as
follows. There are approximately 180 carriers that have submitted yearly
responses since 2007 (i.e. for 7 years). An additional 20% margin was
included in the calculation to cover IC plans that are resubmitted for
revisions and new carriers that submit throughout the year. This totals
180 x 7 = 1260 x 20% = 1512 IC Plans.

The size of each IC plan varies depending on the size of the carrier.
 Even with a conservative estimate of 10 pages per IC Plan, this means
that your current request would require access to over 1800 pages.
Reviewing over 1800 pages would take an estimated 150 hours as each page
would need to be assessed against the FOI Act and a determination made as
to whether to grant, refuse or defer release after which if a page is to
be released, a copy or an edited copy of the page needs to be made.  

In addition, section 202 of the TIA Act requires the Communications Access
Coordinator to treat any IC Plans received as confidential and not to
disclose any Plans without the written permission of the carrier or
provider that submitted the Plan.  Accordingly, due to the nature of the
material requested, processing this request will require extensive
consultations with industry, after which additional consultation with
national security and both Commonwealth and State and Territory law
enforcement agencies would also be required. The large amount of material
requested means that these consultations would be time consuming and
burdensome.

Opportunity to revise scope

Consequently, I anticipate that the Department is likely to make a
practical refusal decision to your request under section 24AA (2) of the
FOI Act. I advise that you consider ways to reduce the scope further. For
example, you could amend the scope to a particular carrier.

In our previous correspondence dated 13 September 2013, we identified that
you have a 14 day consultation period to revise your request under section
s24AB of the FOI Act.  During this period, you are welcome to seek
assistance from the FOI team to revise the request so that the practical
refusal reason no longer exists. This consultation period began on 14
September 2013 and will continue until 27 September 2013. The statutory
time frame for processing your request will recommence from that date and
a final decision letter will be issued.

Please feel free to contact the FOI Case Office if you would like
assistance in revising your request or if have any further questions.

Kind regards,

FOI Case Officer

Office of Corporate Counsel

Attorney-General's Department

3-5 National Circuit | Barton ACT 2600
[1][AGD request email]

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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr King,

Thank you for your email. I have taken your revised request to be:

"Access to the 20 most recently submitted interception capability plans (IC plans) of carriers and nominated carriage service providers given to the Communications Access Co‑ordinator under Part 5‑4 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979."

We received your original request on 3 September 2013 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. This 30 day period was 'paused' for the consultation period. This began on 14 September 2013 and ended on the day you made a valid revised request, namely 19 September 2013. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 9 October 2013. This period may be extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Case Officer.

Kind Regards,

FOI Case Officer
Office of Corporate Counsel
Attorney-General's Department
3-5 National Circuit | Barton ACT 2600
[AGD request email]

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr King,

I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) dated 3 September 2013 for access to the twenty most recently
submitted interception capability plans (IC plans) given to the
Communications Access Coordinator under Part 5‑4 of the Telecommunications
(Interception and Access) Act 1979.

I am writing to advise that you are liable to pay a charge in respect of
the processing of your request.  Under section 29 of the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), an agency has the discretion to impose
charges for processing FOI requests. The preliminary assessment of the
charges that you are liable to pay, and the basis for this assessment, is
identified in the attached letter. This letter also provides information
on the payment of a deposit, your right to contend the charge and the time
you have to respond to this notification.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or
concerns.

Yours Sincerely,

FOI Contact Office

FOI & Privacy Section

Attorney-General’s Department

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr King,

Thank you for your email. I have taken your revised request to be:

                "Access to the 20 most recently submitted interception
capability plans (IC          plans) of carriers and nominated carriage
service providers given to the   Communications Access Co‑ordinator under
Part 5‑4 of the                 Telecommunications (Interception and
Access) Act 1979."

We received your original request on 3 September 2013 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after
that date. This 30 day period was 'paused' for the consultation period.
This began on 14 September 2013  and ended on the day you made a valid
revised request, namely 19 September 2013. You should therefore expect a
decision from us by 9 October 2013. This period may be extended if we need
to consult third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this
happens.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI Case
Officer.

Kind Regards,

FOI Case Officer

Office of Corporate Counsel

Attorney-General's Department

3-5 National Circuit | Barton ACT 2600

[1][AGD request email]

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr King,

I refer to your email dated 26 September 2013. Thank you for accepting the
charges. To provide you with an invoice to process this payment, we
require a full name and physical address. If you prefer to provide this
personal information through an alternative email address, please quote
the unique identifier for this request: FOI13/141.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or
concerns.

Yours Sincerely,

FOI Contact Office

FOI & Privacy Section

Attorney-General’s Department

     Dear FOI Requests,

     I agree to pay the charges.

     Yours sincerely,

     G King

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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr King,

The invoice for the charges was sent to the below address on Thursday 17 September 2013. Could you please confirm that you have received the invoice?

Kind Regards,
FOI Contact Office
FOI & Privacy Section
Attorney-General’s Department

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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr King,

I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 for:

"Access to the 20 most recently submitted interception capability plans (IC plans) of carriers and nominated carriage service providers given to the Communications Access Coordinator under Part 5‑4 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979."

Please find attached the decision letter from the Department in respect of your request. I have also attached a letter explaining the final charges that apply to your FOI request and the process for seeking a partial refund.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,
FOI Contact Office
FOI & Privacy Section
Attorney-General’s Department

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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr King,

My apologies - the letter explaining the final charges that apply to your FOI request was incomplete in the below email. I have attached the complete letter to this document.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,

Kind Regards,
FOI Contact Office
FOI & Privacy Section
Attorney-General’s Department

UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr King,

I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 for:

"Access to the 20 most recently submitted interception capability plans (IC plans) of carriers and nominated carriage service providers given to the Communications Access Coordinator under Part 5‑4 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979."

Please find attached the decision letter from the Department in respect of your request. I have also attached a letter explaining the final charges that apply to your FOI request and the process for seeking a partial refund.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,
FOI Contact Office
FOI & Privacy Section
Attorney-General’s Department

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UNCLASSIFIED
13/14748

12 November 2013

Mr G King
[FOI #375 email]

Dear Mr King
Freedom of Information Request no. FOI13/141

We received your request for internal review on 9 November 2013 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 9 December 2013.

We will contact you using the email address you provided. Please advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact. If you have any questions, please contact the FOI Section [AGD request email].

Kind Regards

FOI Contact Officer

Freedom of Information and Privacy Section | Office of Corporate Counsel Attorney-General's Department | 3 - 5 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600
Email: [AGD request email]

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr G King,

I refer to your below request for an internal review of the Department’s
decision in relation to your FOI request for:

Access to the 20 most recently submitted interception capability plans (IC
Plans) of carriers and nominated carriage service providers given to the
Communications Access Coordinator under Part 5 – 4 of the
Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

Please find attached the decision letter from the Department in respect of
your request. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact
me.

Kind Regards,

Elise

FOI Contact Office

FOI & Privacy Section

Attorney-General’s Department

Dear Attorney-General's Department,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information
reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Attorney-General's
Department's handling of my FOI request 'IC plans by carriers'.

My objections to the handling of this request are as follows:

1. Sufficient, fact-based analysis of the various exemptions has not
occurred to establish a reasonable expectation of events, effects or
damages. The quoted exemptions are concerned with a chance of prejudice
and are speculative at best.

2. I dispute the balance found in the conditional exemption public
interest tests. Given the current, widespread public concern regarding
unrestrained government surveillance, these documents have a very clear
potential to inform debate on a matter of public importance.

3. In regards to material obtained in confidence and commercially valuable
information, has any third-party consultation occurred to establish this
as a valid concern?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on
the Internet at this address:
[1]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/i...

Yours faithfully,

G King

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[2][FOI #375 email]

Write your response as plain text. Only send PDF documents as a last
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format for you to use in the delivery of government information.

[3]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

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