Thank you for your email. We appreciate you taking the time to write to us.

Responses will usually be provided within 15 days.

We will respond to you where we have information that may help you, or you have asked a question about your rights or obligations under the energy laws and rules. If this is not the case, we will record the information you have provided, but you may not receive a response.
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IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), and any attachments to it, may contain information that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this email in error, please let the AER know by reply email to the sender informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by the AER www.aer.gov.au

OFFICIAL

Dear G Laney,

Acknowledgment of request for access under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth)

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) acknowledges
receipt of your email of 8 May 2022 requesting, under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth), to:

‘Current AER Chair, Clare Savage, is a member of the Liberal Party and was
politically appointed to her statutory position on that basis.

Under the FOI Act, I seek access to any emails contained in all of Clare
Savage’s AER/ACCC issued email accounts (including all archived and
deleted items) that contain the following term (in the body of an email
and/or in the addressee fields of an email): “liberal.org.au”.  Relevant
documents can be quickly identified by searching “All Outlook Items” in Ms
Savage’s email client for the term “liberal.org.au”.

I’m aware of at least 7 documents that fall within the scope of my request
and that will be identified and provided in response to my request
assuming the obligations set out by the Public Service Act 1999, the
Archives Act 1983, the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Criminal
Code Act 1995 have been complied with.’

Please note that whilst the AER is a separate legal entity, it does not
hold separate records in its own right and is staffed by the ACCC.
Therefore, FOI requests for AER documents are processed by ACCC’s FOI
section.

Timeframe for processing your request

The ACCC has 30 days to process your request, beginning 8 May 2022. This
timeframe may be extended by the ACCC where consultation with third
parties is necessary.

Charges

If the ACCC decides that you should pay a charge to process your request,
we will notify you of the likely cost of processing your request and your
options if you disagree. The statutory timeframe is placed on hold from
when this is sent to you and resumes at a later time.

We will notify you of any charges in relation to your request as soon as
practicable.

Consultation with third parties

The ACCC may be required to consult with businesses or individuals (third
parties) where you have sought information about those third parties. The
Act grants an extra 30 days processing time for the ACCC to undertake this
consultation. You will be advised if we extend the timeframe to allow
third party consultation.

Decision

A decision maker will assess the documents (if any) to decide if we can
release them, or if they are exempt from release. We will send you the
decision and notify you of your review rights.

We will only release documents once any applicable processing charge is
paid.

If we cannot locate any documents that are covered by the scope of your
request, we will advise you of this and your review rights.

Publication of documents released under FOI

Material released under FOI may be published on our website unless we
consider it unreasonable to do so.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact me on
(02) 6243 1244.

Yours sincerely,

Jess Davies

FOI Administration | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services
Division

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Level 1 | 23 Marcus Clarke Street Canberra ACT 2601 | [1]www.accc.gov.au

The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.

show quoted sections

You have contacted the ACCC's Freedom of Information Unit. If you are
contacting us about an ACCC FOI request we will respond in due course.

To make a complaint please contact the ACCC’s Infocentre via the online
[1]complaint form or by calling 1300 302 502.

To report a scam to the ACCC please do so via the [2]report a scam web
form on the ScamWatch website or by calling 1300 302 502.

---

IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au

References

Visible links
1. https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/conta...
2. https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam

OFFICIAL

Dear G Laney,

Thank you for your email.

You have advised that you would like to exclude certain categories of
personal information from the scope of your request. As such, the scope of
your request has been revised to:

‘Current AER Chair, Clare Savage, is a member of the Liberal Party and was
politically appointed to her statutory position on that basis.

Under the FOI Act, I seek access to any emails contained in all of Clare
Savage’s AER/ACCC issued email accounts (including all archived and
deleted items) that contain the following term (in the body of an email
and/or in the addressee fields of an email): “liberal.org.au”.  Relevant
documents can be quickly identified by searching “All Outlook Items” in Ms
Savage’s email client for the term “liberal.org.au”.

I’m aware of at least 7 documents that fall within the scope of my request
and that will be identified and provided in response to my request
assuming the obligations set out by the Public Service Act 1999, the
Archives Act 1983, the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Criminal
Code Act 1995 have been complied with.

I consent to the redaction, from any relevant document, of the personal
information of any person who isn’t, or wasn’t (at the relevant time), an
APS employee, a statutory officer or a member of Parliament.’

We note your comments in relation to providing further information
relating to the public interest that goes to the documents. If you have
any additional information that you wish a decision maker to take into
account in making a decision, please provide this information as soon as
possible. However, please note, the ACCC has not yet decided whether
charges will be imposed for processing your request. Should any such
charges be imposed you will be notified in due course and you will have
the opportunity to request that such charges be waived or reduced on
financial hardship or public interest grounds.

Kind regards,

Jess Davies

FOI Administration | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services
Division

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
Level 1 | 23 Marcus Clarke Street Canberra ACT 2601 | [1]www.accc.gov.au

The ACCC acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country
throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the
land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures;
and to their Elders past, present and future.

show quoted sections

OFFICIAL

Dear G Laney,

Please find the attached for your consideration.

Kind regards,

Rebecca Fenech

FOI Manager | Corporate Law Unit | Specialist Advice and Services Division
(SASD)

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
23 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra 2601 | [1]www.accc.gov.au
T: (02) 6243 1244

The ACCC acknowledges the traditional custodians of Country throughout
Australia and recognises their continuing connection to the land, sea and
community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures; and to their
Elders past, present and future.

---

IMPORTANT: This email from the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission (ACCC), and any attachments to it, may contain information that
is confidential and may also be the subject of legal, professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
review, copy, disseminate, disclose to others or take action in reliance
on, any material contained within this email. If you have received this
email in error, please let the ACCC know by reply email to the sender
informing them of the mistake and delete all copies from your computer
system. For the purposes of the Spam Act 2003, this email is authorised by
the ACCC www.accc.gov.au

References

Visible links
1. http://www.accc.gov.au/