43Refusing to deal with application—general

43 Refusing to deal with application—general (1) A respondent may refuse to deal with an access application wholly or in part only if— (a) dealing with the application would require an unreasonable and substantial diversion of the respondent’s resources (see section 44); or (b) the application is frivolous or vexatious; or Example—vexatious application an application made only to annoy or unreasonably interfere with the respondent’s operations, or for an improper purpose (c) the application involves an abuse of process; or (d) the government information is already available to the applicant (see section 45); or (e) the access application is expressed to relate to government information of a stated kind and government information of that kind is taken to be contrary to the public interest to disclose under schedule 1; or

Refusing to deal with applications Division 5.3 (f) an earlier access application for the same government (i) was made in the 12 months before the application was made; and (ii) access to the information was refused; and (iii) the relevant public interest factors are materially the same as those considered in deciding the earlier application. (2) A respondent is entitled to consider 2 or more applications as 1 application if the applications are related and are made by the same applicant or by people acting together in relation to the applications. (3) An applicant is not entitled to a refund of any application fee paid if the respondent refuses to deal with the application. abuse of process includes— (a) harassment or intimidation of a person; and (b) an unreasonable request for personal information about a person.