ABC reporters sent to the US to cover US election
Dear Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
I write under the FOI Act to request all information held by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in respect of the decisions made to send Sarah Ferguson and David Speers to the United States of America to report on the United States presidential election, including (but not limited to):
- any business case or costings in respect of the decisions
- any arguments made for or against the decisions
- past and anticipated expenses in respect of flights, accomodation, additional wages and other expenses for Speers and Ferguson and any required support crew for those staff to attend.
Please let me know if any part of that scope is unclear and I am happy to assist in narrowing or refocusing.
Kind regards,
Gary
ABC FOI 202425-062
Good afternoon Gary
Thank you for your email of 5 November.
We have spoken with our colleagues in News about the scope you submitted and your offer to narrow/refocus the wording if that was helpful.
Please let us know by return email if you are happy to revise the scope to be worded as below. This wording better aligns with documents the ABC is more likely to hold:
I write under the FOI Act to request documents held by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in respect of the decisions to send Sarah Ferguson and David Speers to the United States of America to report on the US presidential election in 2024, including:
- (1) US election news planning coverage document
- (2) any document showing anticipated costs for US election coverage by Ms Ferguson and or Mr Speers
- (3) a table summarising submitted expenses for payment by the ABC broken down into flights, accommodation and other and any out of pocket expenses for Speers and Ferguson and any support crew who assisted with coverage in the US.
Once you have confirmed the wording of the scope you are happy with, we will send you a formal acknowledgment email.
If you have questions, we are happy to chat by phone if that suits you.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
To assist my consideration of your revised scope, could you please confirm:
Re (1) in offering this reformulation as part of the revised scope, does the ABC consider that this information as has been suggested does not constitute “program material or data casting content” which the ABC would be exempt from disclosing (or, alternatively, would be willing to disclose despite the exemption)?
Re (2) is this intended to refer to costs specifically relating to Speers and Ferguson or rather costs incurred for shows involving Speers and Ferguson generally?
Very much appreciate your prompt thought re my request otherwise - thank you!
Yours sincerely,
Gary
Dear FOI ABC,
Just following up on my request - should I take your previous email as formal acknowledgment?
Yours sincerely,
Gary
ABC FOI 202425-062
Good afternoon Gary
Confirming that the ABC's previous emails to you are part of acknowledging the request you made as well as proposed variations to the scope.
A decision on you request is currently due on Thursday 5 December 2024, subject to any extensions of time for consultation or by agreement.
By making a FOI request, you are providing personal information to the ABC. The ABC manages personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy - available at https://help.abc.net.au/hc/en-us/article.... Personal information may be disclosed in the course of processing this request, such as for the purposes of consultation or internal reporting.
The ABC is managing a high workload at the moment, and therefore would be grateful if you would consider whether you would he happy to provide an extension of time for processing your request if that becomes necessary. Up to 30 calendar days can be agreed under s 15AA of the FOI Act.
In terms of your questions about the scope in your email of 7 November (below) and any variations to the scope, the ABC has not yet issued a decision so we are not able to advise what the delegate may decide once searches are completed.
Question (1) as originally worded (and as amended so far) does appear to seek program material / editorial decision making in a broad sense.
Point (2) is worded to apply to the 2 staff and their coverage of the US election in 2024: - (2) any document showing anticipated costs for US election coverage by Ms Ferguson and or Mr Speers.
If you could please confirm are happy to proceed with this scope, the ABC can continue to search for documents:
...... under the FOI Act [I] request documents held by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in respect of the decisions to send Sarah Ferguson and David Speers to the United States of America to report on the US presidential election in 2024, including:
- (1) US election news planning coverage document
- (2) any document showing anticipated costs for US election coverage by Ms Ferguson and or Mr Speers
- (3) a table summarising submitted expenses for payment by the ABC broken down into flights, accommodation and other and any out of pocket expenses for Speers and Ferguson and any support crew who assisted with coverage in the US.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
To avoid the issues of program material in (1), could the ABC advise if it could process:
- (1) any document (including emails) seeking approval for, or approving, Mr Speers and/or Ms Ferguson to be sent to the US;
- (2) any document showing anticipated costs for US election coverage by Ms Ferguson and or Mr Speers
- (3) a table summarising submitted expenses for payment by the ABC broken down into flights, accommodation and other and any out of pocket expenses for Mr Speers and Ms Ferguson and any support crew who assisted with coverage in the US.
In respect of your acknowledgement, I can confirm that I am happy to provide any extension of time that the ABC considers necessary.
Yours sincerely,
Gary
ABC FOI 202425-062
Good afternoon Gary
Thank you for confirming you are happy to grant an extension of time under s 15AA of the FOI Act based on what the ABC considers necessary. A maximum of 30 days is permitted so the ABC will process an extension of time until Monday 6 January 2025.
With regard to changed scope as of 21 November, the ABC is happy to process this wording if you could confirm that if there is a single document that answers any point that you would be happy with one document for that particular point:
- (1) any document (including emails) seeking approval for, or approving, Mr Speers and/or Ms Ferguson to be sent to the US;
- (2) any document showing anticipated costs for US election coverage by Ms Ferguson and or Mr Speers
- (3) a table summarising submitted expenses for payment by the ABC broken down into flights, accommodation and other and any out of pocket expenses for Mr Speers and Ms Ferguson and any support crew who assisted with coverage in the US [up until 5 November 2024].
The expense calculation cuts off as of the day of your request, 5 November. Based on the amendments to point 1, it is likely that this avoids the program material exemption applying to a full document.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI Team
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
I accept the ABC’s course.
Many thanks for your patience fielding my emails!
Yours sincerely,
Gary
ABC FOI 202425-062
Good afternoon Gary
Attached is the ABC’s decision about your freedom of information request
and the documents.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee.
It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not
read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of
the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you
have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know
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Dear Ali and the wider ABC team,
Thank you so much for your prompt response to my FOI request - I greatly appreciate that and the time that you took to clarify the scope of my request such that it was processable within the statutory time period.
In respect of the first two points of my request, it is apparent to me that:
- Ms Ferguson was approved in total for $17,540.96 - $9,000 for flights, $2,678 for accomodation (being two separate amounts of $1,603 and $1,075) and $5,862.96 for other expenses (being four separate amounts of $2,610, $1,200, $1,802.96 and $250).
- Mr Speers was approved in total for $17,732.36 - $4,107.36 for flights, $3,400 for accomodation (being two separate amounts of $1,150 and $2,250) and $10,225 for other expenses (being two separate amounts of $6,000 and $4,225)
However, in respect of the third point (for which the table at Document 3 was produced) it appears that the expenses that were submitted as at 5 November 2024 does not best capture the expenditure which had been incurred in respect of the US election coverage, both as a whole and also to 5 November 2024 (most notably, it appears that flight expenses had not yet submitted for Mr Speers, with these expenses already having been necessarily incurred by virtue of his already having flown to the United States at that point in time).
Given that the US election coverage has now concluded, would you or someone else at the ABC be able to provide an updated table (in the style of that at Document 3) which reflects all submitted expenses for the coverage?
I appreciate that FOI requests are generally for documents and/or information as in existence at the point of time that the request was made, so I apologise for any inconvenience. However, to limit administrative burden, I am hoping that it would be possible for this table to be provided administratively as a follow up to this request, rather than requiring the making of another FOI request and another FOI decision.
I hope that the context that I provide in my email appropriately explains this follow up query, and apologise if I have in any way confused.
Yours sincerely,
Gary
Good afternoon Gary
Confirming the ABC clarified with you that the expenses would cut off on 5
November 2024 being the date you made your FOI request. This was one day
before the election (Australian time) so it is likely that not all
expenses were submitted by then.
If you would like to start a new FOI request, please send it separately in
a single email chain so that the ABC can assign a new file number and
process that scope as a new file. ABC FOI 202425-062 is closed now the
decision has been issued.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee.
It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not
read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of
the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you
have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know
by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
Thank you very much for that clear guidance.
Based on your guidance, I have made another separate FOI request so that a new file number can be assigned.
That request is also available at this URL - https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/s...
Yours sincerely,
Gary