Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process

Thank you for your correspondence of 21 June 2025 in which you requested access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). We acknowledge that the decision was due for release one the 21 July 2026 and sincerely apologise for the delay in meeting this deadline.

Scope of your request

You have requested access to the following documents:

“ … All communications sent during the period 23 August 2024 to 4 January 2025, to or from FOI branch staff members, regarding FOI 23/24-1328 or any of the 8 documents released in FOI 23/24-1328. Please include all file attachments to the communications…”

Practical refusal

I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.

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 the NDIA from its other operations due to its broad scope. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.

On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make 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 I intend to refuse your request

I have conducted a preliminary search for documents likely to be relevant to your request. This search, including preliminary searches undertaken by the DATA teams, has identified that the NDIA holds a large number of documents within the scope of your request. Based on this preliminary assessment, I am satisfied that processing the request in its current form would require an unreasonable diversion of the NDIA’s resources.

The scope of your request captures over 277 documents, not including any attachments. When attachments are taken into account, the total volume of material is expected to increase significantly.

On my reasonable estimate, I consider that there is more than 500 pages worth of material that falls within the scope of your request as currently worded. At a conservative estimate of 1 minute per page, this would take an FOI officer more than 8.3 hours to simply review and collate the documents.

The documents that are assessed as being within scope of the request will then need to be reviewed for any sensitivities and possible exemption under the FOI Act and scheduled, we will need to consider any consultations and carry these out if required, a decision will need to be made on each document, and a decision letter prepared. This will significantly increase the hours that it will take an FOI officer to process your request.

As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.

Request consultation process

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, the NDIA will be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to process documents you are not interested in.

To reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider refining the request to the following:

restricting the request to specific FOI staff members or positions involved in FOI 23/24-1328
limiting the request to particular types of documents (for example, final briefs, key decision documents, or substantive email correspondence only)
identifying specific issues, topics, or keywords of interest in relation to FOI 23/24-1328
excluding routine or administrative communications (such as scheduling emails or acknowledgements)

excluding duplicates, drafts, or attachments, or limiting attachments to those that were determinative to the decision

You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the following:

a. withdraw your request b. make a revised request c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.

During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance 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 it.

Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.

You can contact me by email at foi@ndis.gov.au.

Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:

Freedom of Information Section Information Access and Privacy Branch Reviews & Information Release Division National Disability Insurance Agency GPO Box 700 CANBERRA ACT 2601

If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 23 June 2026, I will issue you a formal decision letter that confirms my reasons for refusing your request.

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

Yours sincerely

Kate [KGN680] Senior Freedom of Information Officer Information Access and Privacy Branch Reviews & Information Release Division National Disability Insurance Agency