Our reference: FOI 24/25-0587
10 December 2024
David Wright
By email: foi+request-12166-da0918ac@righttoknow.org.au
Dear David Wright
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 13 October 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:
“FOI 23/24-1400, Document 4, pages 40-41 makes reference to ‘Yammer groups for NDIS staff relating to ASD’, which it describes as follows:
“There are two Yammer groups for NDIS staff discussion that some TAT advisors use:
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Understanding the Autism Spectrum by Dr Bennett, PHD“
I seek a copy of all information contained in these Yammer groups.
Contact details and surnames of NDIA staff are irrelevant to my request.”
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. 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 which are likely to be relevant to your request. This search has revealed that the yammer groups mentioned in your request have approximately 309 posts, 462 attachments, and a various number of comments under these posts.
On my reasonable estimate, I consider that there is more than 4229 pages, 5 audio files and 59 videos worth of material that falls within the scope of your request as currently worded. At a conservative estimate of 1 minute per page and averaging 20 mins per audio and video files, this would take an FOI officer more than 91 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:
- Providing a timeframe
- Providing a topic
- Advising if any types of information are not within scope of your application, these can broadly be broken down to:
- Posts
- Comments
- Attachments
- Audio
- Video
- Transcripts
- Research Papers
- Images
I note that in the group Understanding the Autism Spectrum by Dr Bennett, PHD the most recent post is from August 2022 with the majority of activity being from 2019 – 2020. In the group Autism Spectrum Disorders the most recent post is from September 2024 with activity being spread from 2016 – 2024.
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 Complaints Management & FOI Branch General Counsel Division National Disability Insurance Agency GPO Box 700 CANBERRA ACT 2601
If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 25 December 2024, your FOI request will be taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and will not be dealt with any further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Patrick (PHO293) Senior Freedom of Information Officer Complaints Management & FOI Branch General Counsel Division