Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Our reference: FOI 24/25-0870
10 April 2025 GPO Box 700 Canberra ACT 2601 David Wright 1800 800 110 ndis.gov.au
By email: foi+request-12414-7c312afa@righttoknow.org.au
Dear David Wright
Thank you for your correspondence of 29 November 2024, 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:
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I make an FOI request for any information regarding Model Litigant Obligation (MLO) complaints to, and investigations conducted by, the NDIA over the past three years.
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I do not seek information for individual complaints. My request encompasses any aggregate-level information held by the NDIA about the MLO complaints and investigations, including (but not limited to) the number of complaints, the type of complaints (e.g. which elements of the MLOs were alleged to have been breached), the complaint investigation process, the number of complaints upheld and dismissed, the reasons why they were upheld or dismissed, and the results of any complaints which were upheld.
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The form of information I seek may include (but is not limited to) reviews, reports, briefings, and other internal correspondence.
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
The NDIA’s Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch conducted searches for documents relevant to the scope of your request. As a result of these searches, we have been advised that the time required to gather all information and summaries from the past three years is excessive.
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Request Consultation Process
Further searches for reviews, reports, briefings and other internal correspondence would require extensive searches of various files/records to extrapolate information between multiple staff in multiple business areas, both internal and external to the agency.
It is unfortunately difficult to estimate how long these searches would take given the extensive range of stakeholders and the three-year date range scope. However, I am satisfied with the advice provided and am of the view that the work involved in processing your request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
During searches performed by the Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch, a document titled MLO Deep Dive was located that contains some of the information you are seeking. This includes the headings, Background, MLO Data Summary, Summary of Breaches, Key Themes and Learnings from the MLO Complaints and Key NDIA MLO Initiatives. The document starts in the 2017-18 financial year and continues to 2024-25.
We are therefore suggesting, to remove the practical refusal reason, you limit the scope of your request to only this document.
Alternatively, 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.
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.
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 GPO Box 700 CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, it will be assumed that you do not wish to revise the scope of your request, and we will proceed to provide you with a decision regarding access to information.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Kate (KIM 627) A/Assistant Director – Freedom of Information Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch Reviews and Information Release Division
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