Any and all information given to Census workers regarding their rights and responsibilities
Dear Australian Bureau of Statistics,
I wish to request any and all information given to Census workers regarding their rights, responsibilities and equipment as they performed their duties relating to the Census. Such information could include, but is not limited to:
a) any training materials given directly to the workers,
b) lists of any equipment provided to workers,
b) any material pertaining to information that may have been passed on to workers verbally, or by other means of communications, by supervisors or other persons involved, and
c) any specific instructions or manuals relating to any equipment provided to census workers.
I request that fees in relation to this request be waived, as there have been documented reports of census workers entering homes to leave census forms, notes or other messages. Such acts are an invasion of the privacy and security of Australians, and as such any instructions given to workers is in the interest of the Australian public.
Yours faithfully,
Dr William Pettersson
Dear Dr Pettersson
I refer to your application in which you seek access to documents under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (ABS reference FOI 201617/36)
regarding:
o any and all information given to Census workers regarding their
rights, responsibilities and equipment as they performed their duties
relating to the Census. Such information could include, but is not
limited to:
a) any training materials given directly to the workers,
b) lists of any equipment provided to workers,
b) any material pertaining to information that may have been passed
on to workers verbally, or by other means of communications, by
supervisors or other persons involved, and
c) any specific instructions or manuals relating to any equipment
provided to census workers.
Your request was received by the ABS on 26 August 2016 and the 30 days
statutory period for processing your request commenced from that date. If
this request will take longer than 30 days to process, we will contact you
to negotiate an extension of time.
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.
Regards
Dr Caroline Blink
FOI Contact Officer
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(P) (02) 6252 7203
(E) [1][ABS request email] (W) [2]www.abs.gov.au
Dear Australian Bureau of Statistics,
I wish to request any and all information given to Census workers
regarding their rights, responsibilities and equipment as they performed
their duties relating to the Census. Such information could include, but
is not limited to:
a) any training materials given directly to the workers,
b) lists of any equipment provided to workers,
b) any material pertaining to information that may have been passed on to
workers verbally, or by other means of communications, by supervisors or
other persons involved, and
c) any specific instructions or manuals relating to any equipment provided
to census workers.
I request that fees in relation to this request be waived, as there have
been documented reports of census workers entering homes to leave census
forms, notes or other messages. Such acts are an invasion of the privacy
and security of Australians, and as such any instructions given to workers
is in the interest of the Australian public.
Yours faithfully,
Dr William Pettersson
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[FOI #2169 email]
Is [ABS request email] the wrong address for Freedom of
Information requests to Australian Bureau of Statistics? If so, please
contact us using this form:
[3]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:
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Dear Dr Pettersson
This email refers to your FOI request (ABS reference FOI
201617/36) received on 26 August 2016.
The purpose of this email is to advise you, as required under Section 24AB
of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) that a practical refusal
reason exists under Section 24AA of the FOI Act in relation to your
request.
The FOI Act requires that you respond to this notice before the end of the
consultation period, which is 14 days from the date of this email.
(See attached file: [email address].au_20160902_115429.pdf)
Regards
FOI Contact Officer
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(P) (02) 6252 7203
(E) [1][ABS request email] (W) [2]www.abs.gov.au
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Dear Keelie Williams,
I am following up after our phone call earlier last week to revise my
request. I will first point out that I am interested in the privacy
and security of the general public. This includes (but is not limited
to) information belonging to the general public that any census workers
would have access too. For instance, if they have access to names and
addresses, then information regarding how census workers should handle
that information would be relevant to the inquiry. I would like to make
particular note of the fact that census workers do have limited Powers
of entry under S18 of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, and there have
been numerous reports from the public of census workers entering
residences, so I am definitely interested in any information given to
workers regarding these powers or their limitations.
I would like to note that an estimated 3864 document pages will be
generated relating to this inquiry. If this could be broken down, I may
be able to further revise the scope of the inquiry. For instance, if the
vast majority of these are related to the videos, then we can discuss
further revisions relating to video material. However, if the video
material only generates 2 document pages, then there is less incentive
to further prune this down.
I suspect that significant parts of the 3864 document-pages are devoted
to the logistics of organising all the census workers. That is,
communications that would be involved in the hiring of the workers, and
also of deciding which workers would attend which houses, and at what
times. I am happy to exclude any documentation which refers only to
logistical information, that is, information about when workers are to
complete their work, and which areas they are to visit.
For any equipment provided to workers, I am happy to restrict to such
equipment that is capable of recording sound or video, or both. If a
specific piece of equipment cannot record either sound or audio, I would
not need to know any specific instruction information regarding the
equipment, nor whether it was provided to workers. You did mention that
emergency beacons were provided to some workers. There do exist
emergency beacons that can both record and transmit audio and/or video,
and if the beacons provided to workers had these capabilities then I
would still like to include material relevant to this equipment in my
inquiry.
I am aware of an "app" that was used by at least some census workers on
their personal phones, and that this app did have access to at least
addresses as well as some sort of unique identifier for each address.
As such, I am interested in any instructions or advice given to census
workers regarding the installation or use of this app, as well as any
advice regarding the safekeeping of their phone, the app, and any data
contained therein.
Regarding the knowledge base, if you could provide a list of questions
or subject areas in the knowledge base, I would be happy to select the
relevant questions or subject areas from these. For instance, I would be
looking for areas such as "Are census workers allowed to enter
buildings?" or similar. I would like to propose a similar solution to
any instructional videos. If given a summary or brief synopsis
explaining what is discussed in the video, I could recommend that
specific videos either be included or not be included in this request.
Hopefully this is a start to the refinement of this inquiry. I believe
that any further refinement would greatly benefit from some sort of
index or breakdown of the approximately 3800 pages of documentation
that the subject matter expert believes might be relevant.
Thank you,
Dr William Pettersson
Dear Dr Petterson,
I have taken over as an FOI contact officer and I am currently looking
over your FOI request and correspondence. I'd like to confirm that I
understand the scope of your FOI request. The following summary
describes my understanding of the refined scope of your request:
1. All instructions given to Census field staff regarding privacy and
confidentially. This does not include brief mentions/reminders to the
officers in general communications.
2. All instructions/information given to Census field staff regarding
access to property
3. Any documents regarding the type and use of equipment provided to
Census field staff that can record sound and video
4. Any instructions and advice given to Census field staff about the use
of the 'App' on their personal phones.
Can you please confirm that my understanding is correct?
Feel free to call me to discuss (just note that I don't work on Monday
and Tuesday). If my understanding is correct then it is likely that
there will still be a large number of documents involved and I may
suggest a discussion with a relevant person in Census to try and further
tighten your scope to get you exactly what you are looking for.
Regards,
Alexia Tribe
FOI Contact Officer
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(P) (02) 6252 7203
(E) [1][ABS request email] (W) [2]www.abs.gov.au
Please note: I do not work on Mondays and Tuesdays
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Dear Keelie Williams,
I am following up after our phone call earlier last week to revise my
request. I will first point out that I am interested in the privacy
and security of the general public. This includes (but is not limited
to) information belonging to the general public that any census workers
would have access too. For instance, if they have access to names and
addresses, then information regarding how census workers should handle
that information would be relevant to the inquiry. I would like to make
particular note of the fact that census workers do have limited Powers
of entry under S18 of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, and there have
been numerous reports from the public of census workers entering
residences, so I am definitely interested in any information given to
workers regarding these powers or their limitations.
I would like to note that an estimated 3864 document pages will be
generated relating to this inquiry. If this could be broken down, I may
be able to further revise the scope of the inquiry. For instance, if the
vast majority of these are related to the videos, then we can discuss
further revisions relating to video material. However, if the video
material only generates 2 document pages, then there is less incentive
to further prune this down.
I suspect that significant parts of the 3864 document-pages are devoted
to the logistics of organising all the census workers. That is,
communications that would be involved in the hiring of the workers, and
also of deciding which workers would attend which houses, and at what
times. I am happy to exclude any documentation which refers only to
logistical information, that is, information about when workers are to
complete their work, and which areas they are to visit.
For any equipment provided to workers, I am happy to restrict to such
equipment that is capable of recording sound or video, or both. If a
specific piece of equipment cannot record either sound or audio, I would
not need to know any specific instruction information regarding the
equipment, nor whether it was provided to workers. You did mention that
emergency beacons were provided to some workers. There do exist
emergency beacons that can both record and transmit audio and/or video,
and if the beacons provided to workers had these capabilities then I
would still like to include material relevant to this equipment in my
inquiry.
I am aware of an "app" that was used by at least some census workers on
their personal phones, and that this app did have access to at least
addresses as well as some sort of unique identifier for each address.
As such, I am interested in any instructions or advice given to census
workers regarding the installation or use of this app, as well as any
advice regarding the safekeeping of their phone, the app, and any data
contained therein.
Regarding the knowledge base, if you could provide a list of questions
or subject areas in the knowledge base, I would be happy to select the
relevant questions or subject areas from these. For instance, I would be
looking for areas such as "Are census workers allowed to enter
buildings?" or similar. I would like to propose a similar solution to
any instructional videos. If given a summary or brief synopsis
explaining what is discussed in the video, I could recommend that
specific videos either be included or not be included in this request.
Hopefully this is a start to the refinement of this inquiry. I believe
that any further refinement would greatly benefit from some sort of
index or breakdown of the approximately 3800 pages of documentation
that the subject matter expert believes might be relevant.
Thank you,
Dr William Pettersson
Dear Alexia Tribe,
Thank you for your email. It appears that the refinements I offered might not be sufficient to satisfy the requirements of an FoI. To avoid too many of these back-and-forth conversations, I am again requesting that some sort of breakdown of the "large number of documents" that may apply. Without any such breakdown, and given current response timeframes, I could be led to believe that the ABS is deliberately trying to slow down this process. I would be happy to speak directly to "a relevant person in Census" if that would speed up this inquiry.
Yours sincerely,
Dr William Pettersson
Dear Dr Petterson,
I do think that taking to someone who is familiar with all the documents
will be beneficial and will speed up the request. Therefore, can you
please give me a call on the number below so that I can organise a phone
meeting?
Regards,
Alexia Tribe
FOI Officer
T: (02) 6252 7203 E: [1][email address]
Please note: I do not work on Mondays and Tuesdays
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[2]Inactive hide details for William Pettersson ---21/09/2016 10:09:23
AM---Dear Alexia Tribe, Thank you for your email. It appearWilliam
Pettersson ---21/09/2016 10:09:23 AM---Dear Alexia Tribe, Thank you for
your email. It appears that the refinements I offered might not be
From: William Pettersson <[FOI #2169 email]>
To: Alexia Tribe <[email address]>,
Date: 21/09/2016 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: FOI Request 201617/36
Please remember the environment before printing this email.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Keelie Williams,
I am following up after our phone call earlier last week to revise my
request. I will first point out that I am interested in the privacy
and security of the general public. This includes (but is not limited
to) information belonging to the general public that any census workers
would have access too. For instance, if they have access to names and
addresses, then information regarding how census workers should handle
that information would be relevant to the inquiry. I would like to make
particular note of the fact that census workers do have limited Powers
of entry under S18 of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, and there have
been numerous reports from the public of census workers entering
residences, so I am definitely interested in any information given to
workers regarding these powers or their limitations.
I would like to note that an estimated 3864 document pages will be
generated relating to this inquiry. If this could be broken down, I may
be able to further revise the scope of the inquiry. For instance, if the
vast majority of these are related to the videos, then we can discuss
further revisions relating to video material. However, if the video
material only generates 2 document pages, then there is less incentive
to further prune this down.
I suspect that significant parts of the 3864 document-pages are devoted
to the logistics of organising all the census workers. That is,
communications that would be involved in the hiring of the workers, and
also of deciding which workers would attend which houses, and at what
times. I am happy to exclude any documentation which refers only to
logistical information, that is, information about when workers are to
complete their work, and which areas they are to visit.
For any equipment provided to workers, I am happy to restrict to such
equipment that is capable of recording sound or video, or both. If a
specific piece of equipment cannot record either sound or audio, I would
not need to know any specific instruction information regarding the
equipment, nor whether it was provided to workers. You did mention that
emergency beacons were provided to some workers. There do exist
emergency beacons that can both record and transmit audio and/or video,
and if the beacons provided to workers had these capabilities then I
would still like to include material relevant to this equipment in my
inquiry.
I am aware of an "app" that was used by at least some census workers on
their personal phones, and that this app did have access to at least
addresses as well as some sort of unique identifier for each address.
As such, I am interested in any instructions or advice given to census
workers regarding the installation or use of this app, as well as any
advice regarding the safekeeping of their phone, the app, and any data
contained therein.
Regarding the knowledge base, if you could provide a list of questions
or subject areas in the knowledge base, I would be happy to select the
relevant questions or subject areas from these. For instance, I would be
looking for areas such as "Are census workers allowed to enter
buildings?" or similar. I would like to propose a similar solution to
any instructional videos. If given a summary or brief synopsis
explaining what is discussed in the video, I could recommend that
specific videos either be included or not be included in this request.
Hopefully this is a start to the refinement of this inquiry. I believe
that any further refinement would greatly benefit from some sort of
index or breakdown of the approximately 3800 pages of documentation
that the subject matter expert believes might be relevant.
Thank you,
Dr William Pettersson
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #2169 email]
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:
[3]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
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.
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Dear Alexia Tribe,
Further to our earlier phone conversation, I propose the following refinement of my FOI request.
1. All instructions given to Census Mainstream Field Officers regarding privacy or confidentiality. This does not include brief mentions/reminders in otherwise unrelated communications.
2. All instructions/information given to Census Mainstream Field Officers regarding access to property.
3. Provisions for securing Census data when Census Mainstream Field Officers are using the 'App' on their personal devices.
Just as a reminder, "Mainstream Field Officers" was the term given by the ABS for the Census "doorknocking" staff, i.e., those staff who were (possibly amongst other things) trying to contact people directly (face-to-face) regarding the Census.
Yours sincerely,
Dr William Pettersson
Dear Dr Pettersson
Please find attached the estimate of charges for your Freedom of
Information (FOI) request.
(See attached file: FOI 201617-36 - Estimate of Charges.pdf)
If you have any queries regarding this matter please contact the ABS FOI
Contact Officer at [1][ABS request email] or on (02) 6252
7203.
Kind Regards
Lachlan MacRae
FOI Contact Officer
Policy, Legislation and Assurance | Governance and Parliamentary Liaison
Branch | Australian Bureau of Statistics
(P) (02) 6252 7203 (E) [2][ABS request email] (W)
[3]www.abs.gov.au
The [4]ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS handles any personal
information that you provide to us.
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Dear Dr Pettersson
In regards to your revised scope for FOI 201617/36, I would like to advise
that on receipt of your payment sent to the ABS on 24 October 2016 we have
started processing your documents and a formal response is due to be
provided to you on 14 November 2016.
Kind Regards
FOI Contact Officer
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(P) (02) 6252 7203
(E) [1][ABS request email] (W) [2]www.abs.gov.au
The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS handles any personal
information that you provide to us.
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Dear Mr Pettersson,
In response to your FOI request received on 23 September 2016, please find
attached the formal response from the ABS.
Should you have any questions regarding this please feel free to contact
the ABS FOI Contact Officer on: 02 6252 7203 or email:
[1][ABS request email]
(See attached file: FOI 201617-36 Response.pdf)
Kind Regards
FOI Contact Officer
Australian Bureau of Statistics
(P) (02) 6252 7203
(E) [2][ABS request email] (W) [3]www.abs.gov.au
The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS handles any personal
information that you provide to us.
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William Pettersson left an annotation ()
This isn't actually delayed, despite the status up top. The RtK website doesn't properly take into consideration the delays caused by payments and negotiations. Actual due date of response is 14th November.