Our reference: FOI 24/25-1817 (LEXD 284) OAIC reference: MR25/01291
GPO Box 700 Canberra ACT 2601 1800 800 110
18 August 2025 ndis.gov.au
BS
By email: foi+request-13061-c4167e05@righttoknow.org.au
Dear BS
Freedom of Information request — Notice of revised decision under section 55G of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Thank you for your correspondence of 20 April 2025, in which you requested access to documents held by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request.
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the following documents:
“…I request access to the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
The chart of accounts in use by the NDIA, including account codes and descriptions
All associated explanatory and training documentation in use by accounting staff…“
On 29 April 2025, you provided clarification on your request, specifically:
‘Accounting Staff’ is referring to employees including & under the Chief Financial Officer, and thus the requested ‘notes and training documentation’ is the documents relevant to such employees only. Other departments are beyond the scope of this request.
For limiting of scope, I am looking for such documents that directly reference the Chart of Accounts including examples of allocating income/expenditure, creating and modifying accounting codes etc; I will need these documents in their entirety. Training and reference documents that do not directly reference the Chart of
Accounts (for example, Working from Home policies, office OH&S procedures for CFO staff and similar extraneous documents) can be listed as a summary table of the training document titles only, and do not need to be included in full.
Processing Timeframes
The FOI Act provides 30 calendar days for the processing of an FOI request after it is received. As your valid FOI request was received on 20 April 2025, the original due date for your request was 20 May 2025.
On 7 May 2025, you agreed to a 30-day extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act, making 19 June 2025 the new date to provide you with a decision on access, I apologise for the delay.
As we were not able to complete your application by the legislated due date, we are regarded as having refused your application under section 15AC of the FOI Act. Despite this, I have continued to process your application.
I note that you have now applied to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for a review by the Information Commissioner (IC) of our deemed refusal.
Revised Decision Under Section 55G
Section 55G(1)(a) of the FOI Act provides that at any time during an IC review, an Agency may vary an access refusal decision in favour of the applicant by giving access to documents in accordance with the request (revised decision).
Section 55G(2) provides that an Agency must notify the IC of the revised decision, and that decision becomes the decision under review.
Searches Conducted
A Search was conducted by the following business area for documents relevant to the scope of your FOI request:
- Chief Financial Division
As a result of these this search, eight (8) documents were located, this search was undertaken between 28 April and 29 July 2025 and was overseen by senior staff.
Decision on access to documents
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act, including revised decisions under 55G of that Act.
I have decided to:
- Grant access in full to 2 documents
- Grant access in part to 6 documents in accordance with section 22 — Access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted on the grounds that the deleted material is considered exempt under 47E(d) — Public interest conditional exemptions — certain operations of agencies; and
- Remove irrelevant material in accordance with section 22 of the FOI Act
Section 22 — Access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant material deleted
Section 22 of the FOI Act permits an agency to prepare and provide an edited copy of a document where the agency has decided to refuse access to an exempt document or that to give access to a document would disclose information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request for access.
On 29 April 2025, you confirmed via email that you had no objections to staff names being considered irrelevant to the scope of your request.
I have identified both exempt and irrelevant material in six (6) documents and am satisfied that it is reasonably practicable to remove this material and release the documents to you in material form.
The decision in relation to each document is detailed in the schedule of documents at Attachment A.
A statement of reasons for this decision are set out in Attachment B.
Rights of review
In accordance with section 55G(2) of the FOI Act, I will be providing the IC with a copy of this revised decision.
If you determine that you are satisfied with this revised decision and do not require this decision to be reviewed further by the IC, please let the Agency and the OAIC know.
Should you have any enquiries concerning this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me by email at foi@ndis.gov.au.
Yours sincerely
Patrick (PHO293) Senior Freedom of Information Officer Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch Reviews and Information Release Division
4
Attachment A
Schedule of Documents for FOI 24/25-1817 | MR25/01291
| Document number | Page number | Description | Access Decision | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–24 | Perform Chart of Accounts Update SOP |
Date: July 2023 | PARTIAL ACCESS | Irrelevant material removed under section 22 of the FOI Act | | 2 | 25–48 | NDIA Chart of Accounts — Expense
Date: 6 August 2024 | PARTIAL ACCESS
Exemption(s) claimed: s47E(d) — certain operations of agencies | | | 3 | 49–50 | NDIA Chart of Accounts — Revenue
Date: 6 August 2024 | PARTIAL ACCESS
Exemption(s) claimed: s47E(d) — certain operations of agencies | | | 4 | 51–56 | NDIA Chart of Accounts — Asset
Date: 6 August 2024 | PARTIAL ACCESS
Exemption(s) claimed: s47E(d) — certain operations of agencies | | | 5 | 57–60 | NDIA Chart of Accounts — Liability
Date: 6 August 2024 | PARTIAL ACCESS
Exemption(s) claimed: s47E(d) — certain operations of agencies | | | 6 | 61 | NDIA Chart of Accounts — Equity
Date: 6 August 2024 | PARTIAL ACCESS
Exemption(s) claimed: s47E(d) — certain operations of agencies | |
| Document number | Page number | Description | Access Decision | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 62–68 | NDIA Chart of Accounts — Unmapped GLs |
Date: Undated | FULL ACCESS | Unmapped GLs | | 8 | 69–71 | NDIA Chart of Accounts - Terms
Date: Undated | FULL ACCESS | |
Attachment B
Statement of Reasons
FOI 24/25-1834 | MR25/01291
In reaching my decision, I took the following into account:
- your correspondence outlining the scope of your request
- the nature and content of the documents falling within the scope of your request
- the FOI Act
- the FOI Guidelines published under section 93A of the FOI Act
- the notice of IC review
- consultation with relevant NDIA staff
- Factors relevant to my assessment of whether or not disclosure would be in the public interest
- The NDIS’s operating environment and functions
Certain operations of agencies (section 47E(d))
Section 47E(d) of the FOI Act conditionally exempts a document if its disclosure would, or could reasonably be expected to, have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of an agency.
Documents 2–6 contain NDIA internal email addresses for various areas of the agency which are not publicly available. These internal email addresses allow agency staff to identify and communicate with other areas of the agency and are therefore vital to the proper and efficient conduct of the NDIA’s operations. Because the agency will lose control of these documents once disclosed, disclosing the email addresses under the FOI Act is effectively disclosing them to the world at large. I am satisfied that such disclosure would result in a reasonable likelihood that aggrieved members of the public would utilise them to circumvent appropriate, publicly available points of contact within the agency. If this were to occur, it would affect the NDIA’s ability to address grievances and complaints in a structured and efficient manner. Such an outcome would be both substantial and adverse.
Public interest considerations — section 47E(d)
Section 11A(5) of the FOI Act provides that access to a document covered by a conditional exemption must be provided unless disclosure would be contrary to the public interest.
I have not considered any of the irrelevant factors as set out under section 11B(4) of the FOI Act in making this decision.
In favour of disclosure, I have considered the factors outlined in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act, and I have determined that disclosure of the relevant information in Documents 2–6 would promote the objects of the FOI Act by providing access to documents held by the government and/or providing access to information relating to the participant.
Against disclosure, I consider that disclosure of the relevant information in Documents 2–6:
- would not contribute to the publication of information of sufficient public interest to justify the likely harm caused by release
- would not enhance Australia’s representative democracy in the ways described in section 11B(3) of the FOI Act
- would not inform any debate on a matter of public importance, or promote oversight of public expenditure.
While there is limited public interest in the disclosure of information conditionally exempt under section 47E(d) of the FOI Act, the harm that would result from disclosure is that it could reasonably be expected to:
- prejudice the ability of the Agency to protect established contact points and procedures of the Agency
In summary, I am satisfied that the factors against disclosure of the information outweigh the factors in favour of disclosure and that, on balance, it would be contrary to the public interest to release this information to you. Accordingly, I have decided that the relevant information in Documents 2–6 is exempt under section 47E(d) of the FOI Act.