2016-17 Most Expensive Trip
Dear Department of Human Services,
This is a request under the FOI Act.
Can you please provide the travel expenses, invoices, receipts, credit card statements and reimbursements for the most expensive trip taken 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 faithfully,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape
Please see the attached correspondence acknowledging your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Hello,
I note your response.
The ordinary meaning of "trip" can be used, as the ordinary meaning has been used previously in Commonwealth legislation, see for example s4 of MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (LIFE GOLD PASS) ACT 2002.
The meaning for expense is for expenses accrued in relation to the trip, excluding distance travelled, man-hours, wages, supplies or office fees.
You suggest this request would still be voluminous if "expense" and "trip" were defined. To help narrow the scope to an acceptable level, how does the Department attribute costs to trips? By sharing this information, I can then express my request in specific terms relating to your records.
Yours sincerely,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape
I apologise for the delay in responding to your email.
The department is consulting with you in order to clarify aspects of your
request to allow the department to continue processing your request.
There are some aspects of your request still which require clarification
to allow the department to search for and retrieve relevant documents:
· It is still not clear what you mean by trip. For example, if a
person were to travel from point A to D, but also stopped at points B and
C on the way, ‘trip’ could refer to the overall journey (i.e. from points
A to D) or could refer to a single leg of the journey (i.e. from points A
to B, B to C and C to D). In addition, it is not clear whether you are
referring to trips undertaken in the Minister’s personal capacity, in his
capacity as the Federal Member for Aston, or in his capacity as the
Minister for Human Services. I note that you have referred to section 4
of the Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002 (Cth), however
‘trip’ is not defined in any versions of that piece of legislation.
· The term ‘expenses accrued’ captures both direct and indirect
costs associated with any ‘trip’. For example, indirect costs include the
salaries of staff members and would require apportionment in order to
attribute the costs to a particular trip. You may wish to refine the scope
of this part of your request to ‘direct costs’.
In regards to the potential that a revised request would be voluminous,
this is because the department would be required to review each ‘trip’
taken by the Minister during the 2016-17 financial year in order to
determine which one of those trips was the most expensive. It may assist
the department by limiting the scope of your request to a reduced
timeframe.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
-----Original Message-----
From: Jackson Gothe-Snape
[mailto:[FOI #3784 email]]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 August 2017 4:08 PM
To: FOI.LEGAL.TEAM <[email address]>
Subject: Re: LEX31257 - Communication - Your freedom of information
request [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]
Hello,
I note your response.
The ordinary meaning of "trip" can be used, as the ordinary meaning has
been used previously in Commonwealth legislation, see for example s4 of
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (LIFE GOLD PASS) ACT 2002.
The meaning for expense is for expenses accrued in relation to the trip,
excluding distance travelled, man-hours, wages, supplies or office fees.
You suggest this request would still be voluminous if "expense" and "trip"
were defined. To help narrow the scope to an acceptable level, how does
the Department attribute costs to trips? By sharing this information, I
can then express my request in specific terms relating to your records.
Yours sincerely,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
-----Original Message-----
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division Department of Human
Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2][3]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
References
Visible links
1. [4]mailto:[email address]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[5][FOI #3784 email]
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
3. file:///tmp/cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
4. mailto:[email
5. mailto:[FOI #3784 email]
6. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
Hello,
Are you able to process the request as follows:
A spreadsheet or database extract of all travel by Department staff in 2016/17, including cost, segment and date for each record.
Yours sincerely,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately, your revision was made outside the 14 day consultation
period and therefore your matter was taken to be withdrawn under section
24AB(7) of the FOI Act.
You are welcome to make a new request for the following documents:
'A spreadsheet or database extract of all travel by Department staff in
2016/17, including cost, segment and date for each record.'
If you would like to make a new request, please respond to this email and
the department will register your request and send you an acknowledgment
of receipt.
Please note that if you do make a new request in those terms, you may wish
to clarify what you mean by ‘segment’,
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
-----Original Message-----
From: Jackson Gothe-Snape
[mailto:[FOI #3784 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 31 August 2017 12:20 PM
To: FOI.LEGAL.TEAM <[email address]>
Subject: RE: LEX31257 - Communication - Your freedom of information
request [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]
Hello,
Are you able to process the request as follows:
A spreadsheet or database extract of all travel by Department staff in
2016/17, including cost, segment and date for each record.
Yours sincerely,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
-----Original Message-----
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape
I apologise for the delay in responding to your email.
The department is consulting with you in order to clarify aspects of your
request to allow the department to continue processing your request.
There are some aspects of your request still which require clarification
to allow the department to search for and retrieve relevant documents:
· It is still not clear what you mean by trip. For example, if a
person were to travel from point A to D, but also stopped at points B and
C on the way, ‘trip’ could refer to the overall journey (i.e. from points
A to D) or could refer to a single leg of the journey (i.e. from points A
to B, B to C and C to D). In addition, it is not clear whether you are
referring to trips undertaken in the Minister’s personal capacity, in his
capacity as the Federal Member for Aston, or in his capacity as the
Minister for Human Services. I note that you have referred to section 4
of the Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002 (Cth), however
‘trip’ is not defined in any versions of that piece of legislation.
· The term ‘expenses accrued’ captures both direct and indirect
costs associated with any ‘trip’. For example, indirect costs include the
salaries of staff members and would require apportionment in order to
attribute the costs to a particular trip. You may wish to refine the
scope of this part of your request to ‘direct costs’.
In regards to the potential that a revised request would be voluminous,
this is because the department would be required to review each ‘trip’
taken by the Minister during the 2016-17 financial year in order to
determine which one of those trips was the most expensive. It may assist
the department by limiting the scope of your request to a reduced
timeframe.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division Department of Human
Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2][3]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[4][FOI #3784 email]
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:
[5]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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
3. file:///tmp/cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
4. mailto:[FOI #3784 email]
5. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...