OFFICIAL

 

Reference: FOI/2025/006 

Dear Mr Hamiltonshire

Thank you for your email of 14 January 2025 in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to the Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department). 

You set out the terms of the request as follows:

On 1 December 2022, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
released a document titled "Australian red ensign fact sheet", accessible
here: [1]https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/austral...

I request access to all correspondence or records of correspondence
relating to proposing, drafting, and publishing of the red ensign fact
sheet.

For the avoidance of doubt, I agree to remove any personal details of APS
staff at a non-SES level from this request.

Timeframe for receiving your decision

The 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the
day after the Department received your request, you should therefore
expect a decision from us by 13 February 2025.

The processing period of 30 days may be extended in certain circumstances
and we will write to you separately regarding any extension of time. 

Charges

Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department 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 information released under the FOI Act may later be published
online on our disclosure log at
[2]https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/depart...,
subject to certain exceptions. 

If you think you might wish to raise any objections to the publication of
your requested document, which may be released to you, please contact us
by email at [3][DPMC request email].  If you do wish to object to the
publication of information, you would need to set out your reasons.

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details

For documents which fall within scope of the request, it is the
Department’s policy to withhold:

o any person’s signature;
o the names and contact details of Australian Public Service officers
not in the Senior Executive Service (SES);
o the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers;
o the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level below
Chief of Staff.

If you consider the information categorised above is relevant to the terms
of your request please let us know at [4][DPMC request email], otherwise we will
take it that you agree this category of information may be reasonably
regarded as irrelevant and we will delete this information if it appears
in the documents that are otherwise responsive to your request. 

The names and other details of SES officers will not be withheld unless
there is some reason for that information to be exempt from release.

Further information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at
[5]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...

 

Yours sincerely

FOI Coordinator

 

Coordinator | FOI Section

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [6][email address]  w. pmc.gov.au

 

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.pmc.gov.au/resources/austral...
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/about-us/accounta...
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
4. mailto:[DPMC request email]
5. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
6. mailto:[email address]