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	Minister can access documents transferred to the NAA by a previous Minister.
2 November 2021	The applicant provided further submissions in response to the then Attorney-General Cash's submissions of 6 October 2021 which in summary stated: 21. The Information Commissioner can utilise powers under Part VII Division 8 of the FOI Act to require production of the document from either the Office of the Prime Ministers, the Department of Prime Ministers and Cabinet of [sic] National Archives of Australia (assuming evidence is present to say that it has been transferred to the Archives). Still in Possession 22.In the alternate it is argued that the Minister is still in possession of the document. 23.Noting the document requested is a Commonwealth Record, and it was in possession of the Minister at the date of the request, even if it cannot be found it should still be considered to be legally be in the possession of the Minister unless the Minister can produce to the Information Commissioner: a. A record of destruction approval from the National Archives of Australia. b. A record of transfer to the National Archives of Australia. 24.The applicant also notes that the Minister could simply request a copy of the document from the Prime Minister to properly restore its porous records
8 November 2021	Then Attorney-General Cash informed the OAIC that she was not in possession of the document at issue in this IC review and the Department had looked into the matter and confirmed no transfer of the document had taken place.
19 November 2021	The NAA responded to the OAIC's query confirming there were no express prohibitions in the Archives Act 1983 that would prevent a current Minister making a request and accessing documents in the NAA's possession.
10 December 2021	The OAIC wrote to the NAA seeking information under s 55(2)(d) of the FOI Act regarding whether any documents within the terms of the FOI request had been provided to the NAA by former Attorney-General Porter. The OAIC notified both the applicant and then Attorney-General Cash that it had requested information from the NAA under s 55(2)(d). The OAIC also informed the applicant that then Attorney-General Cash submitted that she was not in possession of the document at issue in this IC review.
24 December 2021	The NAA advised that documents falling within the terms of the FOI request had not been provided to the NAA by former Attorney-General Porter.
7 January 2022	The applicant provided an additional submission to the OAIC in relation to this IC review, that also served as an application for IC review of a decision made by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC) on 13 December 2021,[1] in response to a request he submitted to PMC in substantially the same terms as the request that was the subject of this IC review. The Department decided to refuse the request under s 24A of the FOI Act on the basis that it had taken all reasonable steps to find documents relevant to the request and that the requested documents could not be found or do not exist.
17 January 2022	The OAIC wrote to then Attorney-General Cash advising the decision made by former Attorney-General Porter on 14 April 2020, could be varied to find that all reasonable steps have been taken to locate the document, and it could not be found (s 24A of the FOI Act). The OAIC also shared a copy of the applicant’s submissions of 7 January 2022 and invited then Attorney-General Cash to make

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1. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet decision on 13 December 2021, is the subject of a separate IC review application, MR22/00038.

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