FOI Internal Review Decision Letter.

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 27 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The ATO upheld its initial FOI decision following an internal review request by Ben Fairless regarding documents related to how Right to Know website and OpenAustralia Foundation requests are handled (covering 1 June 2017 to 30 July 2024). The original decision granted partial access to 17 documents and full access to 1 document. The internal review challenge concerned delivery method rather than exemptions applied—specifically, that the decision was published on the ATO Disclosure Log rather than returned through the Right to Know website. The ATO confirmed no legislative requirement mandates returning FOI decisions through the original submission channel and noted that publishing on either platform provides equivalent public accessibility. The reviewer affirmed the original decision-maker's exemption reasoning without modification.