NDIA Accountability Project

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NDIS — FOI 24/25-0140: Notification of Decision

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Our reference: FOI 24/25-0140

GPO Box 700 Canberra ACT 2601 1800 800 110

dis.gov.au

AS

By email: foi+request-11830-83406483@righttoknow.org.au

Dear AS

Freedom of Information request - Notification of Decision

Thank you for your correspondence of 3 August 2024, seeking access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

The purpose of this letter is to notify you of my decision on your application.

Scope of your request You requested access to the following documents:

  • the amount funded in levels 1, 2 & 3 of transport funding as at July 1 each year from 2014-2024
  • the indexation applied to transport levels 1, 2 & 3 each year from 2014-2024 whether on July 1 or at other times of the year.
  • information, policy or reports that outlines how the transport funding levels are calculated each year. I presume there must be something like the Disability Worker cost model being used or is it the CPI or another form of common use indexing?

Extension of time On 29 August 2024, you agreed to a 30-day extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act, making 2 October 2024 the new date to provide you with a decision on access. The Office of the Australia Information Commissioner (OAIC) were informed of this agreement on 4 September 2024.

Search efforts Staff in the NDIA’s Analytics, Data and Actuarial (ADA) Division, Service Delivery, Service Guidance and Pricing and Economics branches conducted searches for documents and advised they did not locate any documents relevant to the scope of your request. I have set out the reasons for this outcome in Attachment A to this letter.

Decision on access to documents In summary, I have decided to refuse access to the information you have requested on the basis that the documents are non-existent or unlocatable pursuant to section 24A of the FOI Act.

I made this decision as an authorised FOI decision maker under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.

I have provided a detailed statement of the reasons for my decision in Attachment A to this decision notice.

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Rights of Review

Your rights to seek a review of my decision, or lodge a complaint, are set out at Attachment B.

If you have any enquiries about this matter, please contact me by email at foi@ndis.gov.au.

Yours sincerely

Jennifer (JFD472) Senior Freedom of Information Officer Government, Risk & Legal – Complaints Management and FOI General Counsel Division

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Attachment A

Statement of Reasons FOI Application 24/25-0140

Refused information

I have refused access to the information you requested under section 24A of the FOI Act on the basis that documents containing such information are unlocatable or do not exist.

Relevant law

Under the FOI Act, a person has a right to be given access to documents of an agency. However, the right of access is subject to limitations, including grounds for refusal of access. Section 24A of the FOI Act states that an agency may refuse a request for access to a document if all reasonable steps have been taken to find the document and the agency is satisfied that the document cannot be found or does not exist.

Searches for documents

After reviewing the scope of your FOI application, I identified the need to make enquiries with the NDIA’s ADA Division for documents relevant to the scope of your request. ADA advised that they do not hold documents in relation to your request and referred me to the NDIA’s Service Delivery, Service Guidance and Economics and Pricing branches. These branches advised me that they do not hold documents and have provided additional information which I will explain below.

With regards to item 1 of your request, Economics and Pricing advised that the funding amounts are published on the NDIA website, and I have included a link to the information below. Economics and Pricing further advised that whilst the website states “NDIA funded supports are indexed on an annual basis”, this is in reference to the participant’s overall package, and that transport fees are not indexed or adjusted.

Transport funding | NDIS

With regards to item 2 of your scope, as per above, Economics and Pricing advised that as transport levels are also not indexed or adjusted, there are no documents responsive to this part of your request.

And finally, with regards to item 3 of your scope, there are no documents containing information, policy or reports that outline how the transport funding levels are calculated each year. This is because there is no annual process for determining NDIS transport funding amounts.

Conclusion

Based on the information I received from the relevant business areas, I consider there are reasonable grounds to be satisfied that documents containing the information you seek do not exist. I therefore refuse access to the information under section a 24A of the FOI Act on the basis that the information does not exist.

Attachment B

Your review rights

Internal Review

The FOI Act gives you the right to apply for an internal review of this decision. The review will be conducted by a different person to the person who made the original decision.

If you wish to seek an internal review of the decision, you must apply for the review, in writing, within 30 days of receipt of this letter.

No particular form is required for an application for internal review, but to assist the review process, you should clearly outline your grounds for review (that is, the reasons why you disagree with the decision). Applications for internal review can be lodged by email to foi@ndis.gov.au or sent by post to:

Freedom of Information Section Complaints Management and FOI Branch General Counsel Division National Disability Insurance Agency GPO Box 700 CANBERRA ACT 2601

Review by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

The FOI Act also gives you the right to apply to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to seek a review of this decision.

If you wish to have the decision reviewed by the OAIC, you may apply for review within 60 days of receiving this letter.

You can apply to the OAIC for review in the following ways:

Complaints to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or the Commonwealth Ombudsman

You may complain to either the Commonwealth Ombudsman or the OAIC about actions the NDIA took in relation to your request. The Ombudsman will consult with the OAIC before investigating a complaint about the handling of an FOI request.

You can make a complaint to the OAIC using the contact details identified above, or to the Ombudsman by:

Your complaint should set out the grounds on which you consider the OAIC or the Ombudsman should investigate the NDIA’s handling of your FOI request.

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