Alcohol-fuelled violence
Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
I would like to request all documents and correspondence between the Prime Minister or his staff or his department employees, and any employee of the Daily Telegraph or News Corp Australia, between 1 January 2014 and 12 January 2014, regarding:
a) The issue of alcohol-fuelled violence, or single-hit or "coward punch" assaults; or
b) Discussion of policy related to the above; or
c) The Prime Minister's article ("Prime Minister Tony Abbott's plea to end drunken street violence across Australia") published by the Daily Telegraph on 10 January 2014
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Scott Bridges
FOI/2014/009
Dear Mr Bridges
Thank you for your email of 21 January 2014 in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in the following
terms:
all documents and correspondence between the Prime Minister or his staff
or his department employees, and any employee of the Daily Telegraph or
News Corp Australia, between 1 January 2014 and 12 January 2014,
regarding:
a) The issue of alcohol-fuelled violence, or single-hit or "coward punch"
assaults; or
b) Discussion of policy related to the above; or
c) The Prime Minister's article ("Prime Minister Tony Abbott's plea to end
drunken street violence across Australia") published by the Daily
Telegraph on 10 January 2014
Timeframe for receiving your decision and request for extension of time
We received your request on 21 January 2014 and the 30 day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the day after that
date. You should therefore expect a decision by Thursday, 20 February
2014.
The 30 day statutory period for processing requests may be extended in
certain circumstances.
Charges
An agency or Minister may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a
charge in respect of a request for access to documents. If the
decision-maker decides that you are liable to pay a charge, we will send
you a preliminary assessment of the charge as soon as possible.
Publication of documents
Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/foi/ips/disclosur..., subject to certain
exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any objections to the
publication of any of the information which may be released to you please
contact us by email at [DPMC request email]. If you do wish to object to the
publication of information, you would need to provide supporting reasons.
Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details
It is the Department’s policy to withhold the names and contact details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) within the Department
and other agencies contained within documents that fall within scope of
the request. The names and details of departmental and agency SES officers
will not be withheld unless there is some reason for that information to
be exempt from release. If you require the names and contact details of
non-SES officers please let us know at [DPMC request email] so the
decision-maker may consider; otherwise we will take it that you agree to
that information being excluded from the scope of your request.
We will write again when the Department has more information. Further
information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner at
http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_....
Yours sincerely,
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [DPMC request email]
FOI/2014/009 and FOI/PMO/2014/007
Dear Mr Bridges
Thank you for your email of 21 January 2014 in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in the following
terms:
all documents and correspondence between the Prime Minister or his staff
or his department employees, and any employee of the Daily Telegraph or
News Corp Australia, between 1 January 2014 and 12 January 2014,
regarding:
a) The issue of alcohol-fuelled violence, or single-hit or "coward punch"
assaults; or
b) Discussion of policy related to the above; or
c) The Prime Minister's article ("Prime Minister Tony Abbott's plea to end
drunken street violence across Australia") published by the Daily
Telegraph on 10 January 2014
The Act provides a mechanism to transfer or partially transfer requests to
another agency where the subject-matter of the request is more closely
connected with the functions of that agency. This ensures that a decision
on the request is made by the most appropriate agency.
The Department sought to transfer the request (in part) to the Office of
the Prime Minister in accordance with paragraph 16(1)(b) of the FOI Act.
The Department will retain so much of the request as relates to Department
employees. The Office of the Prime Minister has accepted a partial
transfer of your request, in accordance with paragraph 16(1)(b) of the
Act, to make a decision in relation to relevant documents held by them.
Therefore a separate decision will be provided to you from the Department
(reference FOI/2014/009) and from the Office of the Prime Minister
(reference FOI/PMO/2014/007).
Your request to the Department will now be read as:
all documents and correspondence between Department of the Prime Minister
and Cabinet employees, and any employee of the Daily Telegraph or News
Corp Australia, between 1 January 2014 and 12 January 2014, regarding:
a) The issue of alcohol-fuelled violence, or single-hit or "coward punch"
assaults; or
b) Discussion of policy related to the above; or
c) The Prime Minister's article ("Prime Minister Tony Abbott's plea to end
drunken street violence across Australia") published by the Daily
Telegraph on 10 January 2014
Your request to the Office of the Prime Minister will now be read as:
all documents and correspondence between the Prime Minister or his staff,
and any employee of the Daily Telegraph or News Corp Australia, between 1
January 2014 and 12 January 2014, regarding:
a) The issue of alcohol-fuelled violence, or single-hit or "coward punch"
assaults; or
b) Discussion of policy related to the above; or
c) The Prime Minister's article ("Prime Minister Tony Abbott's plea to end
drunken street violence across Australia") published by the Daily
Telegraph on 10 January 2014
As the Department also provides administrative support to the Prime
Minister in relation to FOI requests made to him, should you wish to
discuss any aspect of either request, please contact the Department by
either email at [1][DPMC request email] or by telephone on (02) 6271 5849.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [2][DPMC request email]
From: FOI
Sent: Monday, 3 February 2014 6:38 PM
To: Scott Bridges
Cc: FOI
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Alcohol-fuelled violence
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
FOI/2014/009
Dear Mr Bridges
Thank you for your email of 21 January 2014 in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in the following
terms:
all documents and correspondence between the Prime Minister or his staff
or his department employees, and any employee of the Daily Telegraph or
News Corp Australia, between 1 January 2014 and 12 January 2014,
regarding:
a) The issue of alcohol-fuelled violence, or single-hit or "coward punch"
assaults; or
b) Discussion of policy related to the above; or
c) The Prime Minister's article ("Prime Minister Tony Abbott's plea to end
drunken street violence across Australia") published by the Daily
Telegraph on 10 January 2014
Timeframe for receiving your decision and request for extension of time
We received your request on 21 January 2014 and the 30 day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the day after that
date. You should therefore expect a decision by Thursday, 20 February
2014.
The 30 day statutory period for processing requests may be extended in
certain circumstances.
Charges
An agency or Minister may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a
charge in respect of a request for access to documents. If the
decision-maker decides that you are liable to pay a charge, we will send
you a preliminary assessment of the charge as soon as possible.
Publication of documents
Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[3]http://www.dpmc.gov.au/foi/ips/disclosur..., subject to
certain exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any objections to
the publication of any of the information which may be released to you
please contact us by email at [4][DPMC request email]. If you do wish to object
to the publication of information, you would need to provide supporting
reasons.
Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details
It is the Department’s policy to withhold the names and contact details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) within the Department
and other agencies contained within documents that fall within scope of
the request. The names and details of departmental and agency SES officers
will not be withheld unless there is some reason for that information to
be exempt from release. If you require the names and contact details of
non-SES officers please let us know at [5][DPMC request email] so the
decision-maker may consider; otherwise we will take it that you agree to
that information being excluded from the scope of your request.
We will write again when the Department has more information. Further
information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner at
[6]http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_....
Yours sincerely,
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [7][DPMC request email]
Good afternoon
Please see attached correspondence in relation to an FOI request with the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – reference FOI/2014/009.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [1][DPMC request email]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
Dear FOI Adviser,
Thank you for your decision about my request to the Department (FOI/2014/009), and for your advice about the partial transfer of my request to the Office of the Prime Minister (FOI/PMO/2014/007).
Are you able to clarify for me the time frame that applies to the portion of the request now being considered by the Office of the Prime Minister? And how will the Office communicate with me -- through this Right To Know channel or through a new channel?
Yours sincerely,
Scott Bridges
Dear Mr Bridges,
Please see the attached correspondence in relation your FOI request
(reference FOI/ PMO/2014/007).
Yours sincerely,
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [1][DPMC request email]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]