Australia's Declaration of Independence
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
I hereby request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, existing documents formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign Nation.
I also request that any charges in relation to this Freedom of Information request be waived, as the documents may contain information that would be in the public interest, or of public
interest.
Yours faithfully,
Benjamin Garrett
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UNCLASSIFIED
14/4215
21 March 2014
Mr Ben Garrett
Email: [FOI #561 email]
Dear Mr Garrett
Freedom of Information Request no. FOI14/040
I refer to your request for access to documents relating to formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. I have taken your request to be for:
existing documents formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign Nation.
If you disagree with our interpretation of your request, please let me know as soon as possible.
We received your request on 18 March 2014 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 17 April 2014. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.
It is the usual practice of the Department to not release the names and contact details of junior officers of the Department and other government agencies, where that personal information is contained in documents within scope of a request. The names and contact details of senior officers will generally be released. We will take it that you agree to the removal of junior officers’ personal information unless you advise that you would like us to consider releasing that information as part of the documents you have requested.
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FOI Contact Officer
Freedom of Information and Privacy Section | Office of Corporate Counsel Attorney-General's Department | 3 - 5 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600
Email: [AGD request email]
-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Garrett [mailto:[FOI #561 email]]
Sent: Tuesday, 18 March 2014 9:57 AM
To: FOI Requests
Subject: TRIM: Freedom of Information request - Australia's Declaration of Independence
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
I hereby request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, existing documents formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign Nation.
I also request that any charges in relation to this Freedom of Information request be waived, as the documents may contain information that would be in the public interest, or of public interest.
Yours faithfully,
Benjamin Garrett
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Dear Attorney-General's Department,
I am unsure as to why there is any confusion as my original request stated, my request is for access to via the Freedom of Information Act 1982,
(a) existing documents formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign Nation.
I also request that any charges in relation to this Freedom of Information request be waived, as the documents may contain information that would be in the public interest, or of public interest.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Garrett
Ben Garrett left an annotation ()
Thanks Ben,
I haven't struck that in previous FOI was concerned with the departments response sounded awkward,
“I refer to your request for access to documents relating to,
formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
Which wasn't what I requested in my initial request as follows,
“formally declaring Australia to be an Independent Sovereign Nation”.
Kind regards
Ben
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
To be fair, the request is probably one which isn't received on a regular basis.
If what I've read online is correct (which I'm sure is over simplified), countires are only recognised as countries if other countries agree they are countries.
Australia is an independent country because other countries recognise it as such.
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
Some history: The British claim of sovereignty over territory is traditionally effected by a person (usually a person authorized by the Crown) claiming the territory "in the name of" the sovereign. Some variations exist; you can see for an example that Ball's Pyramid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball%27s_Py...) was claimed for the Australian State of New South Wales, or, to say the say thing another way, it was claimed for the Crown "in right of the State of New South Wales".
Only two of the former colonies of Great Britain have simply declared themselves to be nations: the United States of America, and Southern Rhodesia. Australia, I believe, and also countries like Canada, India, Pakistan and others have not declared their independence. The action they have done is to negotiate independence from Great Britain and to arrive mutually at a settlement. For Australia, the history of becoming separate is not just in the Constitution of Australia but later also in the Statute of Westminster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_...), and the Australia Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_...). A person will find it interesting to read the section in the Wikipedia entry for Australia Act about appeals to the Privy Council.
Summary: I think you must discover that the document(s) you look for are not documents that exist, so your request will be refused on the grounds of section 24AA of the Act ("Requests may be refused if documents cannot be found, do not exist or have not been received"). But it is possible to download from Comlaw (http://www.comlaw.gov.au) or from the AustLII (http://www.austlii.edu.au) a copy of the Australia Act, the Constitution, the Statute of Westminster and other legislation.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Garrett,
Please find attached the Department’s decision with regard to your request
for documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
Kind regards
FOI Contact Officer
Freedom of Information and Privacy Section | Office of Corporate Counsel
Attorney-General's Department | 3 - 5 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600
*: [1][AGD request email]
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Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
Hi Ben, the email sent was just an acknowledgement of the request and detailing next steps. I don't think additional clarification was required :)
Cheers,
Ben