AFP donations to Indonesia
Dear Australian Federal Police,
Under the Freedom of Information Act, please provide a list of gifts or donations which the AFP has provided to Indonesia for the purposes of law enforcement and/or people smuggling interceptions from 2000 to 2016. This may include, for example, provision of high speed patrol vessels, motorcycles, and surveillance equipment.
If it is not possible to provide a list of such gifts or donations, please provide reports and/or briefings which outline these gifts and donations, from 2000 to 2016.
Yours faithfully,
Asher Hirsch
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The FOI Team can be contacted on 02 6131 6131
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Asher Hirsch,
I refer to your application dated 23 August 2017 in which you seek access
to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act) as
follows:
“A list of gifts or donations which the AFP has provided to Indonesia for
the purposes of law enforcement and/or people smuggling interceptions from
2000 to 2016. This may include, for example, provision of high speed
patrol vessels, motorcycles and surveillance equipment.
If it is not possible to provide a list of such gifts or donations, please
provide reports and/or briefings which outline these gifts and donations,
from 2000 to 20016.”
Information considered irrelevant to the scope of your request
The AFP, in its management of FOI requests, excludes the following
information on the basis that is irrelevant to the scope of a request:
- Names of AFP members, other than the Senior Executive.
- Direct telephone numbers, signatures and mobile telephone numbers
of AFP members.
- Duplicate documents, including duplicate emails. The AFP will only
provide emails where they form a final email chain and the
authors/recipients are contained within the final email.
- Information that is publicly available, for example, newspaper
articles, online publications including information available on the AFP
Information Publication Scheme and the AFP disclosure log.
If you object to the AFP excluding any of the above information, please
advise this office within seven days of receipt of this letter.
Your request was received by this agency on 22 August 2017 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from that date.
You will be notified of any charges in accordance with the Freedom of
Information (Fees and Charges) Regulations, should they apply, in relation
to your request as soon as practicable.
Disclosure Log
Please be advised that in accordance with section 11C of the Act, an
agency is required to publish information on their website following the
notification of a decision in respect of a freedom of information
request.
The requirement to publish information released under FOI reinforces the
objectives of the FOI Act to promote a pro-disclosure culture across
government and to increase recognition that information held by government
is a national resource. Exceptions to the requirement to publish
information would apply to personal information and information concerning
the business affairs of a person if it was considered ‘unreasonable’ to do
so. Details of the decision may be published in a Disclosure Log which
can be found at
[1]https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/informat....
Publication will be made in accordance with timeframes stipulated in
section 11C of the Act.
If, however, after noting the above, you wish to raise any concerns about
the publication of information concerning your request prior to the
notification of a decision, please advise this office in writing before
22 September 2017. If you do not raise any concerns prior to the date of
the decision, the AFP will publish the information as notified to you in
the decision.
Yours sincerely
TANYA (AFP14692)
TEAM MEMBER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
LEGAL
Tel +61(0) 2 61316131
[2]www.afp.gov.au
UNCLASSIFIED
References
Visible links
1. https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/informat...
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Asher Hirsch
Your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your application dated 23 August 2017 in which you seek access
to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Upon consideration of your request, the AFP is of the view that your
request will take longer than 30 days to process. The delay is
regrettable, however, due to the extensive searches which are currently
being conducted by various teams within the agency, it will not be
possible to advise you of a decision by 20 September 2017.
Accordingly, pursuant to section 15AA of the Act, I seek your agreement to
extend the period to notify you of a decision to 22 October 2017.
I would be grateful if you would advise this office in writing of your
agreement to the proposed extension of time.
If you have any queries in relation to this matter, please do not hesitate
to contact this office.
Yours sincerely,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION OFFICER
CHIEF COUNSEL PORTFOLIO
Tel +61(0) 2 61316131
[1]www.afp.gov.au
UNCLASSIFIED
References
Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/
Dear FOI,
Thank you for your email. I agree to the request for an extension of time and note the new due date of October 22 2017.
Yours sincerely,
Asher Hirsch
Thank you for your email.
Please note that this is an automated response to confirm that your email was sent to the Australian Federal Police Freedom of Information (FOI) inbox.
This FOI inbox is monitored between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays and the period from 27-31 December.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.
If you are requesting personal information about yourself then please ensure you enclose a copy of your photographic identification.
Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the Australian Federal Police’s website at: http://www.afp.gov.au/about-the-afp/foi-...
The Australian Federal Police will acknowledge your request in accordance with the legislative requirements of the Act.
The FOI Team can be contacted on 02 6131 6131
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Asher Hirsch,
I refer to you Freedom of Information request CRM 2018/127 in relation to
AFP donations/gifts to Indonesia. Consultations have been undertaken with
the appropriate line areas in relation to your request and we have been
advised that it is likely to be voluminous if we were required to collate
and examine files covering a 16 year time frame. Accordingly, would you be
willing to reduce the amount of time specified in your request?
Also, are you able to provide any further clarity around what type of
gift/donation you are seeking information on? Can we search for the
examples you have provided specifically (high speed patrol vessels,
motorcycles and surveillance equipment), or would you like to extend the
list of examples we can search for?
As you can imagine, the more information we have around your application
will enable us to more accurately locate the information you are
requesting.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards,
SOPHIE (AFP20849)
TEAM MEMBER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
LEGAL
Tel +61(0) 2 61312291 Ext 142291
[1]www.afp.gov.au
[2]Australian Federal Police
UNCLASSIFIED
References
Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/
Dear FOI,
Thank you for the email. Apologies for the delay in replying to you.
Essentially what I am seeking is information on equipment, vehicles and vessels that have been provided to the Indonesian Government particularly for the purposes of combating people smuggling.
For example, the AFP 2010-11 Annual Report (page 56) notes that "the AFP presented to the Indonesian National Police detection equipment comprising eight motorcycles, seven IT kits, seven video and still photography kits, GPS devices and surveillance equipment." The same page also notes that the AFP provided "three high-speed patrol vessels for the Indonesian National Police".
Would it help your search if you limit the request to "only to equipment, vehicles and vessels provided the Indonesian National Police for the purpose of combating people smuggling"?
As for timeline, I would ideally like to cover from 2001 to 2016. However, if easier I can make a separate FOI request for each year. However, I'm not sure if that would assist you any further.
Please advise if you need further clarification.
Yours sincerely,
Asher Hirsch
Thank you for your email.
Please note that this is an automated response to confirm that your email was sent to the Australian Federal Police Freedom of Information (FOI) inbox.
This FOI inbox is monitored between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays and the period from 27-31 December.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.
If you are requesting personal information about yourself then please ensure you enclose a copy of your photographic identification.
Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the Australian Federal Police’s website at: http://www.afp.gov.au/about-the-afp/foi-...
The Australian Federal Police will acknowledge your request in accordance with the legislative requirements of the Act.
The FOI Team can be contacted on 02 6131 6131
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Hirsch,
Please find attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request with
reference CRM2018/127.
Regards,
SOPHIE (AFP20849)
TEAM MEMBER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
LEGAL
Tel +61(0) 2 6131 6131
[1]www.afp.gov.au
[2]Australian Federal Police
UNCLASSIFIED
References
Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Hirsch,
Please find attached a decision in relation to your Freedom of Information
Request with reference CRM2018/127.
Kind Regards,
SOPHIE (AFP20849)
TEAM MEMBER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
LEGAL
Tel +61(0) 2 6131 6131
[1]www.afp.gov.au
[2]Australian Federal Police
UNCLASSIFIED
References
Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
Agencies continue to use practical refusal notifications poorly.
When correctly done, a practical refusal consultation will seek to assist the applicant, rather than hinder them, by:
* Conducting a scoping study through limited sampling (and disclosing with sufficient detail), outlining the breakdown of time involved (rather than unsupported and vague back of the envelope estimates that are simply figures plucked out of the air);
* Helping the applicant by providing more detail about the types of files and documents held, and which are likely to be of interest to the applicant, so that both the agency and the applicant can zero in on them (rather than expecting the applicant to guess, when they are ones that have no visibility of document holdings by the agency);
* Seeking not to establish a scope to identify all possible documents that may even be tangentially related, but look at searching for just any document, and provided access to that, rather the establishing an impossibly high bar certain for failure (the “all” documents approach rather than the “any” documents approach).
Ultimately agencies just seem to what to game FOI into an impossible hide and seek, which really subverts the aims and objectives of the Act, which is rather sad.