Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982 - SECT 25

             (1)  Nothing in this Act shall be taken to require an agency or Minister to give information as to the existence or non‑existence of a document where information as to the existence or non‑existence of that document, if included in a document of an agency, would cause the last‑mentioned document to be an exempt document by virtue of section 33 or 33A or subsection 37(1).

             (2)  Where a request relates to a document that is, or if it existed would be, of a kind referred to in subsection (1), the agency or Minister dealing with the request may give notice in writing to the applicant that the agency or the Minister, as the case may be, neither confirms nor denies the existence, as a document of the agency or an official document of the Minister, of such a document but that, assuming the existence of such a document, it would be an exempt document under section 33 or 33A or subsection 37(1) and, where such a notice is given:

                     (a)  section 26 applies as if the decision to give such a notice were a decision referred to in that section; and

                     (b)  the decision shall, for the purposes of Part VI, be deemed to be a decision refusing to grant access to the document in accordance with the request for the reason that the document would, if it existed, be an exempt document under section 33 or 33A or subsection 37(1), as the case may be.