OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER Reference: FOVPMO/2015/047 SMAY 2016 ‘The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP Shadow Attorney-General Shadow Minister for the Arts Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Dear Mr Dreyfus refer to your letter of 15 March 2016 and previous correspondence relating to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access to emails on the Prime Minister's private email server. I apologise for the delay in replying. (On 24 November 2015 you wrote revising the terms of an carlier request and requesting access to: documents on the Prime Minister's private email server which mention or relate to the National Security Commitee of Cabinet, national security more generally, or Australia's international relations. ‘The terms of your request are broad. As it covers documents that ‘mention or relate to” the broad topics of national security and international relations and has no date limitation, processing would require examination of the content of hundreds of emails. For example, an email would mention or relate to Australia’s intemational relations if it quoted, referred to or attached a media item about Australia’s relationship with another country. In addition, cach email would have to be assessed to determine whether, despite being on a private server, it fell within the definition of ‘official document of a Minister’ and could be the subject of a request under the FOI Act. Prefiminary assessment of the task has satisfied me that to process such a request in accordance with the FOI Act would require significant resources in this Office and unreasonably interfere with the performance of the Prime Minister's functions. Priamont House CANBERRA ACT 2600 “Telephone (02) 627777 ‘woevrpin gov. auAlthough the processing of requests for access to documents is a legitimate part of each minister's functions that may require reallocation of resources, I consider that it would not be reasonable to divert the resources to process your request in its current terms. This assessment takes account of the ability of this Office to fairly allocate its resources to other FOI requests and resources available from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to assist Unfortunately, a decision on your request was not provided within the statutory time allowed by the FOL Act and, by operation of section ISAC, a decision to refuse access was deemed to have been made on 24 December 2015. Section 55G of the FOT Act allows an agency or minister to vary an access refusal decision at any time during an Information Commissioner (IC) review of the original decision but in this case there is no IC review on foot thet would allow such a variation. ‘The Prime Minister takes seriously the obligations imposed by the FO] Act and this Office would be happy to process a request in revised terms. It may assist you to know that a search for the term National Security Committee of Cabinet was conducted of the emails on the server and no documents were identified that fell within that part of the scope of your request. A request that identified more cleatly the documents you are secking could be processed without unreasonably interfering with the performance of the functions of the Prime Minister. For example, you could consider including only emails that refer to national security or international relations in the subject line, as this would involve a much less resource-intensive search process. You might also like to consider specifying a date range for the documents, as that would also reduce the number of documents to be examined. However, it appears from your letter of 15 March 2016, that you may be more concemed with the question of whether official documents dealing with sensitive national security and foreign relations matters are held on the Prime Minister’s private email server, rather than with obtaining access to particular documents. In that regard, I can assure you that the Prime Minister takes national security extremely seriously and that all classified documents are dealt with by this Office in accordance with the Commonwealth protective security policy framework, If you would like to revise the terms of your request along the lines suggested above, I would be grateful if you would advise the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (which provides administrative support to this Office in relation to FOI requests to the Prime Minister). The department can be contacted on (02) 6271 5849 or by email to foi@pme.gov.au. ‘Complaint rights ‘The Information Commissioner cannot investigate a minister's handling of FOI matters. A. similar restriction applies to the Commonwealth Ombudsman. However, a person may make ‘2 complaint to the Information Commissioner or the Commonwealth Ombudsman about the actions of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in relation to this FOI request. ‘Making a complaint about the Department's actions is a separate process to secking review of the decision. Please note: From 1 November 2014 the Information Commissioner will refer all FOL complaints to the Commonwealth Ombudsman.‘A complaint to the Information Commissioner must be in writing and identify the agency in respect of which the complaint is made. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) may be contacted by phone (1300 363 992), email (enquiries@oaic.gov.au) or by letter (GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001). Further information about the OAIC can be found on their website: https://www.oaic. gov. au. A complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman may be made in orally or in writing. You may make a complaint to the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman by phone (1300 362 072), by letter (GPO Box 442 Canberra ACT 2601), by fax (02 6276 0123), in person or through their online complaint form. Further information about the Commonwealth Ombudsman can be found on their website: http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/. Should you require more information, please contact the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on (02) 6271 5849 or by email to foi@pme. gov. au. Yours sincerely