Your email has been received by the Freedom of Information and Privacy
Section of the Attorney-General's Department. Please note that we will
only action and respond to FOI requests and other matters relating to the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to
make an FOI request please refer to the FOI page on the department's
website at:
[1]https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....

If your email relates to the FOI Act, we will contact you shortly to
acknowledge and/or respond to your request. Please do not send duplicate
emails as this may cause delays in response time-frames.

For matters not relating to the Freedom of Information Act 1982, please
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References

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OFFICIAL

Dear applicant

Freedom of Information Request FOI23/583

I refer to your request to the Attorney-General's Department (the
department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access
to documents. Your request is for:

the report provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC under
paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about the
legal services expenditure and legal work of the Office of the
Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly because there is no publicly
accessible record of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal
services expenditures on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth
Ombudsman for the 2022-2023 financial year.

The department received your request on 12 November 2023 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after
that date. The department sent you an auto-reply acknowledgement on
receipt of your email.

The department's practice is to not disclose personal information of staff
of the department and other government authorities, where that information
is not publicly known or routinely disclosed (e.g. names of junior
officers and contact information). The names of senior officers will
generally be disclosed. In addition, duplicates and incomplete email
chains, internal administrative email addresses and metadata within the
scope of the FOI request will be excluded.

Extension of Time Request

Under s 15AA of the FOI Act, an agency may extend the initial processing
period for dealing with a request by a further period of no more than 30
days if the applicant agrees in writing to the extension and the agency
gives written notice of the extension to the Information Commissioner as
soon as practicable after the agreement is made.

I would like to request your agreement to extend the processing period for
your request by 30 days. I am requesting this extension of time from you
due to the impacts of considerable recent increase in the number of
information access applications currently being received by the
department, and the upcoming government closedown during the holiday
period from 25 December – 1 January. While we have commenced processing
your request, due to these factors we will be unable to finalise the
decision by the current due date. If you agree to grant the department
this extension, it will provide us with the time to respond to your
request in early January 2024.

If you agree to the requested extension of 30 days, please let me know in
writing at your earliest convenience.

The department received your request on 12 November 2023 and your request
is currently due on 12 December 2023. If you agree to the requested
extension, the new due date will be 11 January 2023.  

Please note that if you agree to the extension, the department is required
to notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, including
your name and contact details.

If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email to [1][AGD request email].

Kind regards

Dana
Assistant Director, FOI and Privacy Section

Enabling Services Group

Attorney-General’s Department 

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen <[FOI #10857 email]>
Sent: Sunday, 12 November 2023 8:49 PM
To: FOI Requests <[AGD request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - 2022-2023 finanicial year report
of legal services expenditure for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not
follow guidance, click links, or open attachments unless you recognise the
sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Attorney-General's Department,

Paragraph 11.1(ba) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) provides:

The accountable authority of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity is
responsible for ensuring that the entity’s legal services purchasing,
including expenditure, is appropriately recorded and monitored and that,
by 30 October each year, the entity makes publicly available records of
its legal services expenditure for the previous financial year.

Paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal Services Directions 2017 (Cth) provides:

The accountable authority of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity is
responsible for ensuring that the entity reports to OLSC about the legal
services expenditure and legal work of the entity, using a template
approved by OLSC that specifies the matters to be reported, within 60 days
after the end of each financial year.

The accountable authority of the listed entity known as the Office of the
Commonwealth Ombudsman is the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Iain Anderson
(Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cth), s 4A(c)).

As at 12 November 2023, the Commonwealth Ombudsman has failed to make
publicly available the records of the Office of the Commonwealth
Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures for the 2022-2023 financial year
on the website of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman:
[3]www.ombudsman.gov.au/about/accountability-and-reporting#_legal-services-expenditure.

Under the FOI Act I request access to the report provided by the
Commonwealth Ombudsman to the OLSC under paragraph 11.1(da) of the Legal
Services Directions 2017 (Cth) about the legal services expenditure and
legal work of the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly
because there is no publicly accessible record of the Office of the
Commonwealth Ombudsman’s legal services expenditures on the website of the
Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman for the 2022-2023 financial year.

Please do not transfer this request to the Office of the Commonwealth
Ombudsman: Bienstein v Attorney-General [2007] FCA 1174, [38]. If the
document requested does not exist, please simply note that in the relevant
decision notice.

Please provide documents to me by return email.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen

-------------------------------------------------------------------

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

[4][FOI #10857 email]

Is [5][AGD request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests
to Attorney-General's Department? If so, please contact us using this
form:

[6]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:

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

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

OFFICIAL

The Attorney-General’s Department may collect your personal information
where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, our
functions, including those under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) and the Privacy Act 1988. We may collect your name, email address and
telephone number so that we can contact you about your request or privacy
complaint. If your request concerns accessing or correcting your personal
information, we will collect the minimum amount of evidence necessary to
verify your identity. We hold personal information in accordance with the
Privacy Act and our privacy policy. If you have an enquiry or complaint
about your privacy, please contact the Privacy Officer on 02 6141 6666 or
via e-mail [email address]. 
If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately by
return email and delete all copies. If this email or any attachments have
been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver of any
confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of information in the
email or attachments.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[AGD request email]
2. mailto:[AGD request email]
3. http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/about/accoun...
4. mailto:[FOI #10857 email]
5. mailto:[AGD request email]
6. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
7. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

hide quoted sections

OFFICIAL

Dear Stephen

Freedom of Information Request FOI23/585

I refer to your request to the Attorney-General's Department (the
department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for access
to documents.

Thank you for agreeing to an extension under section 15AA of the FOI Act
to the 20 December.

The purpose of this email is to provide you with a decision in response to
that request. 

Please find attached:

o decision letter, including:

o review rights,
o statement of reasons, and

o document.

If you have any questions, please contact me by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email to [1][AGD request email].

Kind regards

[Personal Information Redacted]

Freedom of Information and Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department

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

OFFICIAL

The Attorney-General’s Department may collect your personal information
where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, our
functions, including those under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) and the Privacy Act 1988. We may collect your name, email address and
telephone number so that we can contact you about your request or privacy
complaint. If your request concerns accessing or correcting your personal
information, we will collect the minimum amount of evidence necessary to
verify your identity. We hold personal information in accordance with the
Privacy Act and our privacy policy. If you have an enquiry or complaint
about your privacy, please contact the Privacy Officer on 02 6141 6666 or
via e-mail [email address]. 
If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately by
return email and delete all copies. If this email or any attachments have
been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver of any
confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of information in the
email or attachments.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[AGD request email]
2. mailto:[AGD request email]

Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team at the
Attorney-General’s Department (the department). We get a high volume of
emails and FOI applications and work to respond as promptly as possible.

This email acknowledges your correspondence and provides some general
information in relation to FOI.  

Please note that we will only respond to emails about the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to make a
request under the FOI Act please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....
For enquiries about other matters, please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u...

The statutory processing time for FOI requests is 30 days, however this
may be extended if the department needs to consult third parties or for
other reasons. If you have submitted an FOI request, the department will
write to you again within 30 days of receiving your request. This
correspondence may: 

* seek further information from you to help us process your request, 

* provide you with a decision on your FOI request, or 

* discuss whether an extension of time is needed to process your request.

Please do not send duplicate emails as this may cause delays to processing
times.

This FOI inbox is monitored business hours Monday to Friday, excluding
public holidays and the period from 23 December 2023 to 1 January 2024
inclusive. Your email will be responded to when staff resume their duties.

You can expect our team to provide a helpful, respectful service and we
expect respectful engagement in return.

Under s 89L of the FOI Act, disrespectful, threatening or abusive language
may be an abuse of the access action process. If this happens, we may not
be able to help you or we might take steps to manage how we communicate
with you. 

If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.

If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.