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's internal review decision of 28 February 2025 upheld its original 24 January decision on an FOI request concerning gifted airline lounge memberships to ATO Executive members over five years. The applicant sought documents detailing such gifts, declarations, correspondence with airlines, valuation estimates, conflict-of-interest assessments, and evidence of mandatory ethics training completion by senior leaders. Of 11 documents released, three were released in full, four in part (citing exemptions), and four refused entirely. A separate January request asking direct questions of Executive members holding lounge memberships was deemed invalid under section 4 of the FOI Act. The internal review affirmed the original decision, with the ATO maintaining that Executive members, despite their senior leadership role setting standards for APS behaviour, warranted no higher disclosure threshold than general employees regarding gift declarations and potential conflicts of interest.