Thank you for your email to the National Disability Insurance Agency
(NDIA) Freedom of Information (FOI) team.
Please note: due to a high volume of requests, our ability to respond to
you in a timely manner may be affected. We will action your request as
soon as possible and will endeavour to process your matter within the
legislative deadlines. We may need to seek your agreement to an extension
of time. We appreciate your understanding if this is required.
Participant Information
Did you know the NDIA has other ways to access the documents and
information that we hold?

Participants, Guardians and Nominees can obtain copies of some participant
information through our National Contact Centre (NCC). For more
information about what’s available through the NCC, please contact 1800
800 110.
Please visit our [1]Access to Information webpage to find out more about
accessing information through:

* The [2]Participant Information Access (PIA) scheme
* The [3]Information Publication Scheme (IPS)
* The [4]myplace portal for participants   
* The [5]myplace portal for providers

Access to Data
You can also request data and statistics. Please visit our [6]Data and
insights webpage page for further information.
If you are able to obtain your information from a source listed above, you
can withdraw your FOI request by emailing [7][NDIA request email]

Further Information
Information about how to make an FOI request can be found on our website:
[8]Freedom of Information
Should you have a query unrelated to FOI, please contact the Agency by
email at [9][email address] or via webchat at [10]ndis.gov.au.
Alternatively, you can also contact us by phoning 1800 800 110.
Kind regards   

Freedom of Information Team 

Complaints Management & FOI Branch

General Counsel Division 

National Disability Insurance Agency 

E [11][NDIA request email]  

The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging. 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
2. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
3. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
4. https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/usi...
https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/usi...
5. https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/workin...
https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/workin...
6. https://data.ndis.gov.au/
https://data.ndis.gov.au/
7. mailto:[NDIA request email]
mailto:[NDIA request email]
8. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
9. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
10. https://www.ndis.gov.au/
https://www.ndis.gov.au/
11. mailto:[NDIA request email]

Dear David Wright

Freedom of Information Request: Acknowledgement

Thank you for your request of 5 October 2024, made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), for information held by the National
Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

Scope of your Request

You have requested access to:

“1) The number of AAT matters where the NDIA has engaged Dr Sandbank
(regardless of whether these matters reached the stage of a hearing or
not).

2) The total amount of payments made by the NDIA to Dr Sandbank for all
her services for these matters.

3) The number of AAT matters where the NDIA has engaged Dr Maclean
(regardless of whether these matters reached the stage of a hearing or
not).

4) The total amount of payments made by the NDIA to Dr Maclean for all his
services for these matters.

5) The number of AAT matters where the NDIA has engaged Dr Pincus
(regardless of whether these matters reached the stage of a hearing or
not).

6) The total amount of payments made by the NDIA to Dr Pincus for all his
services for these matters.

7) The number of AAT matters where the NDIA has engaged Dr McDowell
(regardless of whether these matters reached the stage of a hearing or
not).

8) The total amount of payments made by the NDIA to Dr McDowell for all
his services for these matters.”

Irrelevant Information

Section 22 of the FOI Act allows an Agency to redact information from
documents if that information would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant
to a request for access.

Given the nature of your request, it does not seem that NDIA staff
members’ surnames and contact details would be relevant to you. Can you
please send me a reply email confirming that such details are irrelevant
to your request for access?

Processing Timeframes

In accordance with section 15(5)(b) of the FOI Act, a 30-day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from 6 October 2024. This
30-day period expires on 4 November 2024.

The 30-day period can be extended in a number of ways, including with your
agreement.

Unfortunately, it is currently taking us a little longer than 30 days to
process FOI requests. I am therefore seeking your agreement to a 30-day
extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act. If you agree to this
extension, the new due date for us to decide on your request will be 4
December 2024.

If you do not agree and we are unable to process your request within the
30-day period expiring on 4 November 2024, we will be deemed to have
refused your request and you will not have a right to seek internal review
of that decision. You will, however, retain your right to external review
by the Australian Information Commissioner.

Please let us know if you agree by 18 October 2024.

Disclosure Log

Subject to certain exceptions, documents released under the FOI Act will
be published on the NDIA’s disclosure log located on our website.

If you have any concerns about the publication of the documents you have
requested, please contact me.

Next steps

Your request will be allocated to an authorised FOI decision-maker. The
decision-maker may need to contact you to discuss a range of matters,
including refining the scope of your request.

We will contact you using the email address you have provided. Please
advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or need help, please contact us
at [1][NDIA request email].

Regards

Mykal

Freedom of Information Officer

Complaints Management & FOI Branch

General Counsel Division

National Disability Insurance Agency

E [2][NDIA request email]

[3]NDIA logo

[4]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic

The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.

[5]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic

show quoted sections

Dear David Wright

Sincerest apologies to the delay in processing your request.

I note that I have identified documents that contains information
regarding external businesses and that I am required to initiate a
third-party consultation with these businesses under sections 27 and 27A
of the FOI Act to seek any comments or concerns with regards to the
document sensitivities.

I intend to consult on Monday 11 November 2024 and request your consent to
disclose your name to the relevant businesses.

Please be aware that if you choose to not consent, then we will not be
able to identify you as the applicant of your FOI request, which may
affect the responses given by the agency.

Processing Timeframe

As part of the consultation process, I advise that your request has been
extended by 30-days to allow the relevant businesses time to provide
comments on potential sensitivities, and that the processing period for
your request will now end on Friday 3 January 2025.

Next steps

Please advise if you are happy to disclose your name to the relevant
agency by 12pm Monday 11 November 2024. If you require more time, then I
am happy to wait until 12pm Wednesday 13 November 2024 for your response.

Please contact us at [1][NDIA request email] if you have any questions or need
help.

Warmest regards,

Kate (KIM627)

Senior Freedom of Information Officer

Complaints Management and FOI Branch

General Counsel Division

National Disability Insurance Agency

E: [2][NDIA request email]

[3]Title: NDIS delivered by the National Disability Insurance Agency

[4]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic

The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.

[5]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic

show quoted sections

Thank you for your email to the National Disability Insurance Agency
(NDIA) Freedom of Information (FOI) team. 
 
Please note: due to a high volume of requests, our ability to respond to
you in a timely manner may be affected. We will action your request as
soon as possible and will endeavour to process your matter within the
legislative deadlines. We may need to seek your agreement to an extension
of time. We appreciate your understanding if this is required. 
 
Participant Information 
Did you know the NDIA has other ways to access the documents and
information that we hold? 
 
 
Participants, Guardians and Nominees can obtain copies of some participant
information through our National Contact Centre (NCC). For more
information about what’s available through the NCC, please contact 1800
800 110. 
 
 
Please visit our [1]Access to Information webpage to find out more about
accessing information through: 

* The [2]Participant Information Access (PIA) scheme 
 
* The [3]Information Publication Scheme (IPS) 
 
* The [4]myplace portal for participants    
 
* The [5]myplace portal for providers 

Access to Data 
 
You can also request data and statistics. Please visit our [6]Data and
insights webpage page for further information. 
 
 
If you are able to obtain your information from a source listed above, you
can withdraw your FOI request by emailing [7][NDIA request email] 
 
Further Information 
 
Information about how to make an FOI request can be found on our website:
[8]Freedom of Information 
 
 
Should you have a query unrelated to FOI, please contact the Agency by
email at [9][email address] or via webchat at [10]ndis.gov.au.
Alternatively, you can also contact us by phoning 1800 800 110. 
 
 
Kind regards    
 
 
Freedom of Information Team  
Complaints Management & FOI Branch 
General Counsel Division  
National Disability Insurance Agency  
E [11][NDIA request email]   
   
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.  

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
2. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
3. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
4. https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/usi...
5. https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/workin...
6. https://data.ndis.gov.au/
7. mailto:[NDIA request email]
8. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
9. mailto:[email address]
10. https://www.ndis.gov.au/
11. mailto:[NDIA request email]

Dear David Wright

Thank you for your request for information.

Please find attached correspondence and documents in relation to your
request.  If you require these in a different format, please let us know.

Please contact us at [1][NDIA request email] if you have any questions or
require help.

Thank you.

Kind regards

Kate

Complaints Management and FOI Branch

General Counsel Division

National Disability Insurance Agency

E: [2][NDIA request email]

[3]Title: NDIS delivered by the National Disability Insurance Agency

[4]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic

The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.

[5]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic

show quoted sections

Dear David Wright,

Thank you for your email below.

I note that you have indicated that the scope of your request was intended
to encompass “both direct engagement/payment by the NDIA, and
engagement/payment via external law firms”.

I have consulted with the Legal Operations team, Legal Practice and
Capability Branch to ascertain if the agency holds such documents or is
able to produce a document in accordance with s17(1)(b) of the FOI Act.

Legal Operations, Legal Practice and Capability Branch have advised that:

o The agency does not collect data on costs of individual experts
engaged by external law firms
o Where the information may be held on individual AAT matters, the work
required to extract that information in a manual way would be a
diversion of resources.

If you have any further queries, please email [1][NDIA request email]

Regards,

Kate (KIM627)

A/Assistant Director – Freedom of Information

Non Personals Team

Complaints Management and FOI Branch

General Counsel Division

National Disability Insurance Agency

E [2][NDIA request email] 

[3][IMG]

The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.

show quoted sections

Good morning David,

I am writing to respond to your follow up queries in your email dated 31
January 2025, my apologies for the delay in providing you a response.

 1. You have not provided any information about the process of manually
extracting the information, or the estimated time to complete it.
Legal firms engaged by the agency typically detail the costs of expert
witness in their itemised invoices submitted to the agency. I cannot
see how reviewing these invoices and extracting the relevant
information would be so resource intensive as to warrant the refusal
of my request, particularly given that the scope of my request only
encompasses four experts. If it is overly resource intensive, you need
to detail and justify this claim by providing evidence.

The Legal Operations, Legal Practice and Capability Branch have been
consulted on the process to manually extract the information on costs of
individual experts engaged by external law firms which is held on
individual AAT matters.   

Whilst law firms may itemise expert witness/medical costs as part of their
invoice, this level of detail is not captured in the Agency’s matter
management system, LEX.   

I have consulted with my LPC colleagues in the data and reporting team,
and they have estimated it would take 20-25 hours per doctor as a minimum.

This is based on the manual process to extract the information, which
would include the following steps:

1.       Search of over 15,000 records in LEX with small sections and
small date ranges at a time to identify matters where the doctor is
mentioned.  Each ART matter could contain hundreds of file notes and
documents.

2.       Review of each matter that included mention of the doctor to
locate invoices from law firms who worked on those matters, to not each
ART matter could contain hundreds of documents.

3.       Review of each monthly invoice to see if there were any legal
disbursements that also included the doctor’s invoice.

 2. The law requires agencies to keep records of their expenditure, which
includes payments to experts engaged by the agency. Such expenditure
is a matter of public interest, and should be disclosed as a matter of
public transparency. You have not provided any reasoning as to why the
agency considers that the diversion of resources outweighs its duty to
public transparency.

Commonwealth agencies are required to report to the Office of Legal
Services Coordination (OLSC) about their legal services expenditure within
60 days after the end of the financial year. Agencies must submit
expenditure reports using the template that OLSC provides to all agencies
at the start of each financial year. The agencies legal services
expenditure is available here [1]Legal Services Expenditure Report 2022–23
| Attorney-General's Department

 3. Your response only addresses the cost component of my request. The
other component is to provide the number of AAT/ART matters where the
NDIA has engaged these experts. The NDIA should have this information
readily at hand, within its legal/AAT case management branch, even in
cases where the experts have been engaged indirectly via external law
firms. This is because the agency instructs external law firms on the
engagement and use of experts.

Question 1, 3, 5 and 7 provide the answer to the number of AAT/ART matters
where the NDIA has directly engaged the services of these x4 individual
experts. As previously advised the agency does not collect data on costs
of individual experts engaged by external law firms. Where the information
may be held on individual AAT matters, the work required to extract that
information in a manual way would be an unreasonable diversion of
resources.

Review by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

The FOI Act gives you the right to apply to the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) to seek a review of this decision.

If you wish to have the decision reviewed by the OAIC, you may apply for
the review, in writing, or by using the online merits review form
available on the OAIC’s website at [2]www.oaic.gov.au, within 60 days of
receipt of your FOI decision (17 January 2025).

Applications for review can be lodged with the OAIC in the following ways:

Online:  [3]www.oaic.gov.au
Post:      GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Email:    [4][email address]
Phone:  1300 363 992 (local call charge)

Regards,

Kate (KIM627)

Assistant Director – Freedom of Information

Non Personals Team

Complaints Management and FOI Branch

General Counsel Division

National Disability Insurance Agency

E [5][NDIA request email] 

[6][IMG]

The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.

show quoted sections