IME/Expert witness payments to Dr David Pincus for matters at the AAT/ART
Dear National Disability Insurance Agency,
Dr David Pincus has been engaged by the NDIA as an 'Independent Medical Expert' to provide expert advice and reports, and to also appear as an expert witness, in a number of Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) / Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) matters.
I request the following information:
1) The number of AAT/ART matters where the NDIA has engaged Dr Pincus (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 Pincus for all his services for these matters.
Please incorporate within your response to items (1) and (2), all ART/AAT matters where the NDIA has engaged this expert directly, and also indirectly via any external law firm. That is, if an external law firm has engaged the expert on behalf of the NDIA for a matter, and has made any payments to the expert on behalf of the NDIA for that matter, this information should be included in your response.
Please note that, regarding the total amount of payments in item (1), I only request a single total figure. I do not request that the payments be broken down for each individual AAT/ART matter. Copies of payment invoices and the like are also not requested.
Yours faithfully,
David Wright
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Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [11][NDIA request email]
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Dear David Wright
Freedom of Information Request: Acknowledgement
Thank you for your request of 26 February 2025, 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/ART matters where the NDIA has engaged Dr Pincus
(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 Pincus for all his
services for these matters.”
I note that you requested identical data in a previous FOI request FOI
24/25-0466 which you made on 5 October 2024.
We released a document to you in response to this FOI request on 17
January 2025. This document is now publicly available on our disclosure
log.
Could you please confirm by reply email whether you are only seeking new
data dating from 6 October 2024 to the date of this new FOI request (26
February 2025)?
If you are unsatisfied with our response to your previous FOI request,
your best option is to ask the Office of the Information Commissioner
(OAIC) to review it, not to lodge another identical request.
Would you like to withdraw this request and instead seek an OAIC review of
FOI 24/25-0466?
If you would like to withdraw it, please respond to this email by COB
Monday 17 March 2025.
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 27 February 2025 This
30-day period expires on 28 March 2025.
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 due to a very high volume. 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 28 April 2025.
If you do not agree and we are unable to process your request within the
30-day period, 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 Monday 17 March 2025.
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requested, please contact me.
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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].
Kind regards
Brett
Freedom of Information Officer
Governance, Risk & Legal – Complaints Management & FOI
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
Dear Brett
FOI 24/25-0466 was a request for information in relation to four expert witnesses. The reason given for refusing to provide some of this information to me was that the work required to extract it would be an unreasonable diversion of resources. At no point did the FOI unit discuss with me options for reducing the scope of my request to make it more manageable.
Accordingly, I have now submitted a new FOI request here, which is different to FOI 24/25-0466, in that it only seeks the information in relation to one of the four expert witnesses, thereby effectively limiting the scope of FOI 24/25-0466.
Please process my request separately from FOI 24/25-0466.
If the FOI unit considers that the scope of the current request is too large, please present options on how it might be limited.
I confirm that NDIA staff members’ surnames and contact details are irrelevant to my request for access, and that I agree to a 30-day extension of time, making the new due date for you to decide on my request 28 April 2025.
Thank you
David Wright