Your client, Julian, applied to the Minister for Home Affairs on June 30 for access to copies of documents, emails or correspondence relating to the role of Australian Border Force officials and the Minister in permitting passengers to disembark from the Ruby Princess cruise ship in Sydney on March 19. Julian is a freelance journalist. His application was made under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (FOI Act).
On July 30, in a brief letter, the Minister refused Julian’s request, on two grounds:
(1) the request would substantially and unreasonably interfere with the performance of the Minister’s functions, as per ss 24 and 24AA of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (FOI Act), because it would take more than 1,000 hours to identify and locate the documents and decide whether to release them;
(2) the requested documents would contain, or relate to, deliberative processes of the Minister, as per s 47C(1) of the FOI Act and, if published they would inhibit officials from giving the Minister robust and frank advice.
In the letter, the Minister gave no further reasons for his decision. One week later, the Minister told the House of Representatives that he had rejected Julian’s request because he was a ‘troublemaker’ who was trying to undermine the government and endanger national security.
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