Advisory Council minutes from 2016
Dear National Archives of Australia,
I would like access to the National Archive's Advisory Council minutes for 2016 please.
Yours faithfully,
Renaye
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Renaye,
Thank you for your email relating the National Archive's Advisory Council
minutes for 2016. To make a formal FOI request, you are required to
follow the below steps.
How to make an FOI request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, members of the public can seek
access to documents and files created and held by the Archives, such as:
· •general correspondence and related records;
· •guides, finding aids and associated administrative histories
and contextual narratives; and
· •technical papers and reference materials eg procedure manuals,
internal instructions and guidelines, publications, and training
materials).
Your request must:
· •be in writing;
· •state that the request is an application for the purposes of
the FOI Act;
· •provide detailed information about the document(s) you wish to
access so that we can process your request;
· •provide an address for reply.
You can send your request in the following ways.
By post:
FOI Contact Officer
Executive Business Section
National Archives of Australia
PO Box 7425
Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610
By email:
[NAA request email]
If you are making an FOI request on behalf of another person, you need to
provide a specific, written authority from that person to send copies of
documents to you or to allow you to inspect copies of documents containing
information about the other person.
Warm Regards
Ros Karl National Archives of Australia
Manager, Governance and Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes ACT 2600
Coordination PO Box 7425, Canberra Business Centre ACT 2610
Executive Business Section [1][email address] | naa.gov.au
t +61 2 6212 3410
We acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this
land and celebrate their ongoing culture and contribution to society.
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
This is a very strange response. It is not clear whether the officer is trying to say that the request is not valid, or whether he is trying to say that the applicant cannot request the information that she has asked for, or whether he just does not understand the law.
The request was in writing (email); it said what document was wanted; it gave a reply address for the purposes of s 15(c) of the Act and, I think, that all Right to Know email requests mention FOI. There are several sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) that mention the National Archives but none of those sections would prevent a person from seeking access to agency minutes.
I suggest to the applicant that she telephones the officer. Then, if the officer wants very specific words, she writes the following. The words are only a small modified version of what she already wrote:
Dear National Archives of Australia,
I would like access under the Freedom of Information Act to the National Archive's Advisory Council minutes for 2016 please. The access I want is to be sent a copy of the documents. The email address from which this email is sent is my address for the purpose of section 15(c) of the Act.
Yours faithfully,
Renaye
Do not yet ask for an internal review. If the request is not dealt with properly after the new email, then ask for an internal review and also complain by writing a letter to the National Archives. In the letter of complaint the applicant should say, "I am writing to complain about the way my request for .... was handled.: