Dear Mr Moorcroft

 

Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made in the following terms:

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 I seek the briefing pack
prepared for the Australian Electoral Commissioner for the Senate Finance
and Public Administration Committee's 2024-25 Budget Estimates hearings.

 

Timeframe to process your request

Your request was received by the AEC on 2 July 2024, and the 30-day
statutory timeframe for processing your request commenced from the day
after that date.  You should expect to receive a decision from us by 2
August 2024.  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 timeframe
is extended.

 

Your address

The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address to which we can
send notices. You have made this request through Right To Know, and your
email address for this matter is
[1][FOI #11606 email]. We will send all notices
and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as possible
if you wish for notices and correspondence to be sent to a different
address.  If you do not advise us of changes to your address, notices and
correspondence will continue to be sent to the address specified above.

 

Administrative release of documents

The AEC has administrative access arrangements for the release of certain
documents without the need for a formal freedom of information request.
Where appropriate we may offer you documents via the administrative access
scheme in lieu of processing under the FOI Act.  Information relating to
third parties cannot be released via administrative access.  You will be
notified when documents are released to you on an administrative access
basis.

 

Disclosure log

Documents released under the FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log
on the AEC's website.  Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this
publication, however it is subject to certain exceptions, including where
publication of personal, business, professional or commercial information
would be unreasonable.

 

Further Assistance

If you have any questions please email [2][email address], or contact our
enquiries line on 13 23 26.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Jade

Australian Electoral Commission

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Dear Mr Moorcroft

 

Your Freedom of Information Request – section 24AB consultation

I refer to your request for access to documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), received on 2 July 2024 made in the
following terms:

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 I seek the briefing pack
prepared for the Australian Electoral Commissioner for the Senate Finance
and Public Administration Committee's 2024-25 Budget Estimates hearings.

 

I am an officer authorised under section 23 of the FOI Act to make
decisions in relation to FOI requests. 

 

The Australian Electoral Commission (the AEC) believes that work involved
in processing your FOI request in its current form would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the AEC from its other operations due
to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason' under section
24AA of the FOI Act.  On the basis of the practical refusal reason, I
intend to refuse access to the documents you requested. However, before I
make a final decision, you have the opportunity to revise your FOI
request.  This is called a 'request consultation process', and is set out
in section 24AB of the FOI Act.  You have 14 days to respond to this
notice in one of the ways set out below.

Why your request may be refused

You have sought documents relating to:

o The briefing pack prepared for the Australian Electoral Commissioner
for the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee’s 2024-25
Budget Estimates hearings.

I have decided that a practical refusal reason may exist because a
preliminary search for your requested documents uncovered a voluminous,
940-page briefing pack.

 

Under section 24AA(2) the AEC must have regard to the resources that would
have to be used for:

o identifying, locating or collating the documents within the filing
system of the AEC
o deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to
which the request relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of
such a document (including resources that would have to be used for
examining the document or consulting with any person or body in
relation to the request)
o making a copy or an edited copy, of the document
o notifying any interim or final decision on the request

 

·        The brief contains a range of sensitive information that may be
exempt from being released to the public.

·        Consultation with multiple business areas across the AEC would be
necessary to ensure that appropriate redactions are applied to the
document.

·        Reviewing a 940-page document for such sensitivities would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the AEC from its
other operations under section 24AA(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act.

 

I have also considered other relevant matters to determine whether a
practical refusal reason exists, as allowed by paragraph [3.117] of the
Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A
of the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines).

These relevant matters are:

o the staffing resources available to the office for FOI processing
o the impact that processing the request may have on other work in the
office including FOI processing
o whether there is a significant public interest in the documents
requested.

 

Unreasonable and substantial diversion of resources

As the scope of your request is currently framed to capture the entire
briefing pack, all 940 pages must be reviewed for sensitivities and
redacted if exemptions apply.

I have estimated that it would take at least 70 hours to process your
request. I have estimated the time required based on the following tasks:

o it would take 31 hours to review the document to determine if access
should be granted, refused or deferred; to determine if any FOI
exemptions apply; and if further third-party consultations are
required. We conservatively estimate 2 minutes per page would be
required for this.

o it would take 10 hours to draft a set of reasons and a schedule of
documents.
o it would take 31 hours to mark-up the document with exemptions and
make redactions. We conservatively estimate 2 minutes per page.

We also note the AEC is a small agency with limited resources and minimal
capacity to undertake FOI work.

It would also require substantial time by me as the decision-maker, and
attention from senior officers, to review proposed redactions, the
material itself, drafts of the decision and to consider sensitive issues.
As a result, the AEC would be required to divert significant and valuable
resources away from its core activities under the Commonwealth Electoral
Act 1918 (Cth) (the Electoral Act) to process your request.

I also consider this diversion of resources to be unreasonable as:

o the request is expressed broadly.
o the request would require very careful processing to guard against the
risk of inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information.
o the impact on the AEC of diverting resources to process such a
substantial request would materially impact the AEC FOI team, and
other AEC employees, from responding to other FOI requests and
undertaking their core activities under the Electoral Act.

Request consultation process

You now have the opportunity to revise your request so that it may
proceed.

 

Before the end of the 14 day consultation period, you must write to the
AEC and either:

·        withdraw your request;

·        make a revised request; or

·        tell us that you do not wish to revise your request.

The 14-day consultation period will start on the day after you receive
this notice.

 

During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance from AEC to revise
your request.  If you revise your request to adequately address the
practical refusal reasons outlined above, the AEC will recommence
processing it.

 

The time taken to consult you regarding the scope of your request is not
taken into account for the purposes of the 30-day time limit for
processing your request.

 

If you do not do one of the three things listed above during the
consultation period or you do not contact the AEC to discuss your request
during this period, your request will be taken to have been withdrawn.

Consultation suggestions

You may wish to revise your request to narrow the scope of documents, or
explain in detail the specific documents that you wish to access.

 

For example, you may wish to narrow the scope of your request to sections
of the briefing pack that deal with particular topics.

Further assistance

If you would like to revise your request or have any questions, please
email [1][email address]. 

 

Yours sincerely

Stephanie

Australian Electoral Commission

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Good afternoon,

 

Please see attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stephanie

Australian Electoral Commission

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