UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Gothe-Snape

On 8 August 2017 you requested access to documents, specifically the
following:

            “Can you please provide the budgets, menus, expenses,
invoices, receipts, credit card statements and reimbursements for the most
expensive event attended by a Minister or Assistant Minister in your
Department's portfolio area in 2016-17.”

 

Subsection 15(2) of the FOI Act lists requirements for a valid FOI
request. Paragraph 15(2)(b) requires a person seeking access to documents
to:

         Provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency to identify it.

The Attorney-General’s Department (the department) generally only holds
the type of information you requested in relation to events attended by
the Attorney-General and the Minister for Justice that were paid for by
the department. As the scope of your request includes all events attended
by these Ministers, it is not possible for the department to accurately
identify the ‘most expensive event’.

 

Therefore, I must decide that to the extent that your request does not
constitute a valid FOI request because it does not identify the documents
to which you seek access with sufficient certainty. It remains open to you
to make a revised request to the department.

If you wish to discuss this decision, please contact me by telephone on
(02) 6141 6666 or by email [1][AGD request email].

Kind regards

Courtney

 

Freedom of Information and Parliamentary Section

Strategy and Delivery Division | Attorney-General’s Department

T: (02) 6141 6666 | E: [2][AGD request email]

 

Dear Attorney-General's Department,

 

This is a request under the FOI Act.

 

Can you please provide the budgets, menus, expenses, invoices, receipts,
credit card statements and reimbursements for the most expensive event
attended by a Minister or Assistant Minister in your Department's
portfolio area in 2016-17.

 

I request that any fees arising in relation to this request be waived as
the information is in the public interest, as it helps inform the public
about how the government is spending public revenue.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Jackson Gothe-Snape

 

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[3][FOI #3794 email]

 

Is [4][AGD request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests
to Attorney-General's Department? If so, please contact us using this
form:

[5]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...

 

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:

[6]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

 

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the Attorney-General s Department will only collect your personal
information where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to,
our functions under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 or the Privacy Act
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