OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE
Our reference: FOI 24/25-1567 (LEXD 63456)
25 May 2025
Bob Buckley Right to Know
By email: foi+request-12950-b3840c97@righttoknow.org.au
Dear Bob Buckley
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 21 March 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).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the following documents:
“…Over the past two years, the Australian Government developed a National Autism Strategy (NAS) and released 3 of 4 parts on 14 February 2025. The final part, the Health Roadmap for Autism was released later. Please provide, in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, all information showing communication between the NDIS/NDIA and: a) the secretariat for the development of the National Autism Strategy, b) the Oversight Committee/Council for the National Autism Strategy, and c) the working groups that also were involved in NAS development. I am especially interested in what information the NAS sought from the NDIS, and what information about autism the NDIS provided to NAS development…”
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 size /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
OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE
On 31 March 2025 we sought further information from you about the documents you were requesting access to, as the terms of your request were too broad and we were unable to identify the specific documents sought. No response was received to this email.
In an attempt to identify documents relevant to the scope of your request I conducted a preliminary search of the agencies email system ‘National Autism Strategy” or “NAS”. This search identified that the NDIA is in possession of more than 2,500 individual emails potentially matching the scope of your request, not including any attachments which may be contained within those documents.
On an estimate that a minimum of 2,500 documents fall within the scope of your request with an average of 2 pages per document, I consider that there may be more than 5,000 pages worth of material that falls within the scope of your request as currently worded. At a conservative estimate of 3 minute per page, this would take an FOI officer 15,000 minutes or 250 hours or 33.25 working days review the documents for sensitivities and possible exemptions.
I consider that the NDIA has limited capacity to process a request of this size. For this reason, 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:
- Requesting a specific document
- Providing a specific date range
- Provide the name of the staff you are requesting communication to and/or from
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 Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch Reviews and Information Release Division National Disability Insurance Agency
OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE
GPO Box 700 CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 09 June 2025, I will issue you a formal decision letter than confirms my reasons for refusing your request.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Kate (KIM627) Assistant Director - Freedom of Information Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch Reviews and Information Release Division