OFFICIAL

Dear Andorra,

I refer to your correspondence of 21 November 2022 seeking access, under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the
Department of Defence (Defence). This email is to advise you that your
request has been received and allocated to a Case Manager.

The scope of your request is:

“… Item 1: I am seeking all correspondence since 1 June 2022 held by the
Department of Defence relating to requests to use Special Purpose Aircraft
for domestic travel by the Minister of Defence.

      Item 2: I request that a document containing information on the
times, dates, and locations of departure and arrival of domestic Special
Purpose Aircraft flights taken by the Minister for Defence is created by
the Department under section 17 of the FOI Act.”

*In relation to item 2 of your request, would you please clarify if it is
the same time frame as item 1.

Where staff details are captured in documents within the scope of your FOI
request, this information will be redacted; this includes private email
addresses, signatures, personnel (PMKeyS) numbers and mobile telephone
numbers, unless you specifically request such details. Defence excludes
duplicates of documents and any documents sent to or from you.
Furthermore, Defence only considers final versions of documents.

The statutory deadline for you to receive a response to your request is 21
December 2022. The decision package will be provided by email.

Please note that where the due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public
holiday, the timeframe will expire on the next working day. This is in
accordance with the FOI Guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner.

I am the Case Manager for this request. Should you have any questions
relating to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me via email
to [1][email address].

Kind regards,

Ryan | FOI Case Manager

Media and Information Disclosure Branch

Ministerial and Executive Coordination & Communication Division

Department of Defence

02 5108 8851

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.

References

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1. mailto:[email address]

OFFICIAL

Dear Andorra,

I refer to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking access to the
following documents:

Item 1. “Consistent with the Freedom of Information Act 1982, I am seeking
all correspondence since 1 June 2022 held by the Department of Defence
relating to requests to use Special Purpose Aircraft for domestic travel
by the Minister of Defence.”

Item 2. “I request that a document containing information on the times,
dates, and locations of departure and arrival of domestic Special Purpose
Aircraft flights taken by the Minister for Defence is created by the
Department under section 17 of the FOI Act.”

Practical refusal

I am writing to advise that the work involved in processing your request
in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the
resources of Defence from its other operations due to its size. This is
called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.

On this basis, we intend to refuse your request. However, before the
decision maker makes a final decision, I am writing to provide you with an
opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation
process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.

Why we intend to refuse your request

Item 1 of your request seeks access to ' all correspondence since 1 June
2022'. As your request includes ‘all correspondence’, a preliminary search
undertaken by Defence has returned a total of more than 500 documents, and
it would simply not be possible for the decision maker to certify that he
or she has identified every copy of every correspondence in the
Department's possession in the timeframe specified. To do so would require
a search of every hard copy file, electronic communication and records
management system used by Defence. As such, it is considered that the
workload involved in conscientiously attempting to do so would involve a
substantial and unreasonable diversion of the resources of Defence.

Accordingly, Defence considers that a 'practical refusal reason' exists in
relation to your FOI request, in accordance with section 24AA of the FOI
Act.

Request consultation process

In accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act, Defence is required to
consult with you, in relation to the intention to refuse access to your
request in its current form. As such, you now have an opportunity to
revise your request to enable it to proceed.

Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make
it more manageable, or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to
access. For example, by providing more specific information about exactly
what documents you are interested in.

I make the following suggestions to assist you to narrow the focus of your
request, particularly in relation to item 1:

·         Specify ‘flight request forms’ in place of ‘all correspondence’
in relation to Item 1

·         Specify one particular incident/event

·         Specify one particular month

You now have 14 days to contact me and do one of the following:

a.    withdraw your request

b.    revise the scope of your request

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

If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the
practical refusal reason outlined above, we will recommence processing
your request.

If you do not contact me within 14 days, that is by COB 13 December 2022,
your FOI request will be taken to have been withdrawn under
subsection 24AB(7) and will not be dealt with any further.

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

Kind regards,

Ryan | FOI Case Manager

Media and Information Disclosure Branch

Ministerial and Executive Coordination & Communication Division

Department of Defence

02 5108 8851

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.

OFFICIAL

Dear Andorra,

Please find attached the Decision relating to Defence FOI 256/22/23.

Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you are entitled to request a review of
this decision. Your review rights are attached.

Please contact this office should you require any further information.

Kind regards,

FOI Case Manager

Media and Information Disclosure Branch

Ministerial and Executive Coordination & Communication Division

Department of Defence

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.