Documents Regarding FOI Charges Notices And Decisions.

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 28 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

This disclosure concerns DCCEEW's preliminary FOI charges assessment for a request seeking correspondence and emails relating to a $300,000 grant awarded to Dr Jodi Edwards in February 2024 to investigate Indigenous songlines' role in protecting whales and dolphins over centuries. The department identified 19 relevant documents comprising 73 pages and imposed a processing charge of $281.75, comprising search and retrieval costs ($75), examining and redacting documents ($86.75), consultation with four third parties ($160), and statement of reasons preparation ($60), with a $100 deduction for the first five hours of free decision-making time. The requester was required to respond within 30 days agreeing to pay a $70.44 deposit or contending the charge was wrongly assessed, or the request would be withdrawn. The disclosure does not contain the substantive correspondence or grant documentation itself, only the charges notice.