NDIA Accountability Project

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Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process

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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:

“…I am requesting access to all documents, guidelines, policies, assessment tools, and internal communications relating to the determination and approval of Medium-Term Accommodation (MTA) funding for NDIS participants who are unable to remain in their home while undergoing complex home modifications…”

On 29 May 2025, we wrote to you and advised that your request did not satisfy section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, as the terms of your request were too broad, and we were unable to identify the specific documents sought. In our email we sought further information from you about the documents you were requesting access to.

I confirm to date; I have not received a response from you.

Internal Consultation

Based on your scope of request, I initiated a search for documents within the following NDIA business areas:

  • Service Guidance
  • Scheme Policy

At the conclusion of my searches, senior staff in the aforementioned business areas advised that 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.

Practical refusal reason

At this stage, it is my opinion that the scope of your request is not clear enough for me to undertake searches for document on NDIA systems. As per section 15(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), a FOI request must provide enough information about a document to enable an officer of the Agency to identify it.

OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE

I therefore intend to refuse your request on the basis of a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act. A practical refusal reason exists if either (or both) of the following applies:

  • The work involved in the processing of the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the Agency from its other operations; and/or

  • The request does not satisfy the requirement in section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, which requires an FOI applicant to provide such information concerning the document/s they are seeking access to, to enable the Agency to be able to identify it or them.

In reaching this view, I have taken account the following:

  • The scope of your request
  • The internal advice from the above business areas, who are the subject matter experts within the NDIA.

However, before I make a final decision, I am writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request.1 This is called a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act.

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

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 revising the scope to:

From 21 March 2024 to 21 March 2025 (being the date of this request):

- Guidelines and policies relating to the determination and approval of Medium-Term Accommodation (MTA) funding for NDIS participants who are unable to remain in their home while undergoing complex home modifications.

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

  • Withdraw your request
  • Make a revised request
  • 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.

1 Section 24AB of the FOI Act.

OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE

If you wish to discuss this process, please contact me by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. 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, that is by 26 June 2025, then we will continue to process your request with the current scope of request. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Yours sincerely,

Wendy (WNN633) Senior Freedom of Information Officer Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch Reviews and Information Release Division