Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team at the
Attorney-General’s Department (the department). We get a high volume of
emails and FOI applications and work to respond as promptly as possible.
This auto-reply email confirms your email has been delivered to the
[email address] mailbox. If you have written to the department to submit an
FOI request, please consider this email to be an acknowledgement of its
receipt. 
Please note that we will only respond to emails about the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to make a
request under the FOI Act please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....
For enquiries about other matters, please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u...
The statutory processing time for FOI requests is 30 days, however this
may be extended if the department needs to consult third parties or for
other reasons. If you have submitted an FOI request, the department will
write to you again within 30 days of receiving your request. This
correspondence may: 
* provide assistance to you to help you make a valid FOI request, 
* seek further information from you to help us process your request, 
* provide you with a decision on your FOI request, or 
* discuss whether an extension of time is needed to process your request.
Please do not send duplicate emails as this may cause delays to processing
times.
This FOI inbox is monitored during business hours Monday to Friday,
excluding public holidays.
You can expect our team to provide a helpful, respectful service and we
expect respectful engagement in return.
Under s 89L of the FOI Act, disrespectful, threatening or abusive language
may be an abuse of the access action process. If this happens, we may not
be able to help you or we might take steps to manage how we communicate
with you. 
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.

OFFICIAL
Dear Tyler,

Thank you for your request, which was received by the Attorney-General’s Department (the department) on Friday 18 October 2024.

Your request is for:

- documents that were submitted to the Governor-General for approval of appointment of Stephen Gageler AC as (a) Solicitor-General in 2008, (b) Justice of the High Court in 2012, (c) Chief Justice of the High Court in 2023;

- documents indicating the Governor-General's approval of the above appointments (including, as Justice (2012) and Chief Justice (2023) of the High Court, any commission of appointment that may have been issued).

Documents for part 2 of your request have been previously released by the department and can be accessed via the department’s disclosure log via the following links:
• 2008 appointment to Solicitor-General (page 7): https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect...
• 2012 appointment to Justice of the High Court (page 2): https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect...
• 2023 appointment to Chief Justice of the High Court: https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect...

On this basis, the department would be grateful if you could please advise whether you agree to withdraw part 2 of your request.

For part 1 of your request the department seeks further clarification. Are you requesting the same documents as in part 2 only unsigned by the Governor-General?

We note you submitted your FOI request via the Attorney-General’s page on Right To Know. The documents you are requesting are more likely to be in the possession of the department. Considering this, please confirm if you wish your request to be processed by the department or to the Attorney-General’s Office.

Kind regards,
Rebekah
Freedom of Information & Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [email address]
OFFICIAL

show quoted sections

Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team at the
Attorney-General’s Department (the department). We get a high volume of
emails and FOI applications and work to respond as promptly as possible.
This auto-reply email confirms your email has been delivered to the
[email address] mailbox. If you have written to the department to submit an
FOI request, please consider this email to be an acknowledgement of its
receipt. 
Please note that we will only respond to emails about the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to make a
request under the FOI Act please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....
For enquiries about other matters, please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u...
The statutory processing time for FOI requests is 30 days, however this
may be extended if the department needs to consult third parties or for
other reasons. If you have submitted an FOI request, the department will
write to you again within 30 days of receiving your request. This
correspondence may: 
* provide assistance to you to help you make a valid FOI request, 
* seek further information from you to help us process your request, 
* provide you with a decision on your FOI request, or 
* discuss whether an extension of time is needed to process your request.
Please do not send duplicate emails as this may cause delays to processing
times.
This FOI inbox is monitored during business hours Monday to Friday,
excluding public holidays.
You can expect our team to provide a helpful, respectful service and we
expect respectful engagement in return.
Under s 89L of the FOI Act, disrespectful, threatening or abusive language
may be an abuse of the access action process. If this happens, we may not
be able to help you or we might take steps to manage how we communicate
with you. 
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.

OFFICIAL
Dear Tyler,

Thank you very much for your response. Through consideration of the condition you have outlined below, the department is proceeding to process your request as:

'documents that were submitted to the Governor-General for approval of appointment of Stephen Gageler AC as (a) Solicitor-General in 2008, (b) Justice of the High Court in 2012, (c) Chief Justice of the High Court in 2023'

Request for extension of time:
We received your FOI request on 18 October 2024 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced on the following day. The statutory due date for decision is currently Monday 18 November 2024. Due to an increase in the number of information access applications currently being received by the department, we seek your agreement to a 30-day extension of time to process this request under s 15AA of the FOI Act. This would mean that a decision about your request would be due on 17 December 2024.

If we are in a position to make a decision earlier than this date, we will endeavour to do so. The statutory period may also be extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons permitted under the FOI Act. We will advise you if this happens.

Request to exclude certain information from the scope of your request:
The department is seeking your agreement to exclude the following categories of information from the documents in your request:
- duplicates of documents that are in scope;
- personal information of members of the public;
- contact details for teams, internal to the department and other agencies
- personal information belonging to officers of the department and other government agencies.

Excluding the information listed above enables us to process your request more efficiently. If you agree to the above exclusions, the names of senior executive officers will be released where they are present in the documents and do not attract an FOI exemption. In addition, publicly available telephone numbers and email addresses will generally be released.

Next steps:
Please respond to this email by Wednesday 13 November 2024 to confirm if you agree to this extension of time and to the exclusion of the above information. If you agree to the extension, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) of your agreement under s 15AA of the FOI Act, including your name and contact details.

If you would like to discuss this further please contact the FOI Team by phoning (02) 6141 6666 or emailing [email address].

Kind regards,

Kind regards,
Rachel
Freedom of Information & Privacy
Attorney-General’s Department
Phone: (02) 6141 6666 | Email: [email address]

OFFICIAL

show quoted sections

Thank you for contacting the Freedom of Information (FOI) team at the
Attorney-General’s Department (the department). We get a high volume of
emails and FOI applications and work to respond as promptly as possible.
This auto-reply email confirms your email has been delivered to the
[email address] mailbox. If you have written to the department to submit an
FOI request, please consider this email to be an acknowledgement of its
receipt. 
Please note that we will only respond to emails about the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act). For information on how to make a
request under the FOI Act please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protect....
For enquiries about other matters, please refer to:
https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/connect-u...
The statutory processing time for FOI requests is 30 days, however this
may be extended if the department needs to consult third parties or for
other reasons. If you have submitted an FOI request, the department will
write to you again within 30 days of receiving your request. This
correspondence may: 
* provide assistance to you to help you make a valid FOI request, 
* seek further information from you to help us process your request, 
* provide you with a decision on your FOI request, or 
* discuss whether an extension of time is needed to process your request.
Please do not send duplicate emails as this may cause delays to processing
times.
This FOI inbox is monitored during business hours Monday to Friday,
excluding public holidays.
You can expect our team to provide a helpful, respectful service and we
expect respectful engagement in return.
Under s 89L of the FOI Act, disrespectful, threatening or abusive language
may be an abuse of the access action process. If this happens, we may not
be able to help you or we might take steps to manage how we communicate
with you. 
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the e-mail or attachments.