Code of Conduct Reviews
Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
I request under the Freedom of Information Act copy of documents relating to any code of conduct review/s conducted by the OAIC.
It would be more efficient and cost effective however for the OAIC to produce a s 17 document (like done here https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/6... ) instead that lists:
- the number of such code of conduct reviews carried out by the OAIC, listed by topic (Conflict of interest; Honesty and integrity; procedural fairness; respect, courtesy and harassment; unauthorised access to information; other)
- the number of code of conduct reviews carried out by the OAIC listed by outcome (sanction/warning; withdrawn/closed without adverse finding)
Yours faithfully,
Julie
Our reference: FOIREQ22/00164
Dear Julie,
Freedom of Information request
I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 1 July 2022.
Scope of your request
In your email you seek access to the following:
I request under the Freedom of Information Act copy of documents relating
to any code of conduct review/s conducted by the OAIC.
It would be more efficient and cost effective however for the OAIC to
produce a s 17 document (like done here
[1]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/6...
) instead that lists:
- the number of such code of conduct reviews carried out by the OAIC,
listed by topic (Conflict of interest; Honesty and integrity; procedural
fairness; respect, courtesy and harassment; unauthorised access to
information; other)
- the number of code of conduct reviews carried out by the OAIC listed by
outcome (sanction/warning; withdrawn/closed without adverse finding)
We request clarification of the scope of your request.
Please kindly advise by close of business on Monday 11 July 2022 whether
you are requesting documents for code of conduct reviews in relation to a
defined time period? If so, please specify the date range. The APS Code of
Conduct breach procedure is linked [2]here for your reference.
If we do not hear from you by Monday 11 July 2022 we will assume you are
seeking access to all code of conduct reviews made by the OAIC and will
process your request accordingly.
In order to process your request as efficiently as possible, I will
exclude duplicates and early parts of email streams that are captured in
later email streams from the scope of this request, unless you advise me
otherwise.
We will not identify you as the FOI applicant during and consultation
process. However, documents that are within the scope of your request that
we may need to consult third parties about may contain your personal
information.
Timeframes for dealing with your request
Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.
As we received your request on 1 July 2022, we must process your request
by 1 August 2022.
Disclosure Log
Documents released under the FOI Act may be published online on our
disclosure log, unless they contain personal or business information that
would be unreasonable to publish.
If you would like to discuss this matter please contact me on my contact
details set out below.
Regards
[3][IMG] Janani Balasubramanian |
Paralegal
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[4]oaic.gov.au
1300 363 992
| [5][email address]
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Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
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Dear OAIC - Legal,
It is inappropriate and unethical to provide only four days to respond to correspondence (especially since the OAIC never meets this standard itself). The appropriate timeframe is no less than a fortnight, especially when over a school holiday period as not unsurprisingly young families tend to go away from home over this period.
I limit the scope of my request to the last 50 Code of Conduct reviews carried out by the OAIC.
Yours sincerely,
Julie
Dear Julie,
Please find attached decision in relation to your FOI request (FOREQ22/00164).
Regards,
Emily
Emily Elliott | Senior Lawyer
Legal Services
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 | oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9852| [email address]
Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's handling of my FOI request 'Code of Conduct Reviews'.
Emily Elliot, the delegate who refused access to this s 17 created document that contains no personal information has refused access because she considers "that the document only includes the number of code of conduct reviews by topic and outcome, however the statistical number of code of conduct reviews is small. When this information is combined with the fact the OAIC is only a small agency of around 130 staff; and release of the document under FOI, via the right to know website, provides public access to the document" it would reasonably identify individuals who the code of conduct is about.
As stated by Emily Elliott, the s 17 document does not contain personal details about any individual. In order for such a non-PI document to reasonably identity an individual, there must be something more than just that the OAIC is small and code of conduct reviews are uncommon.
It also should be noted that the type of information in this s 17 document is of the type routinely published by the APSC as cases. The APSC even includes more information than this s 17 document does.
This access refusal is therefore not only wholly unjustified and untenable, but nonsensical.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/c...
Ciao,
Julie
Dear Julie,
I refer to your email of 1 August 2022.
We acknowledge receipt of your application for internal review of the
OAIC’s FOI decision FOIREQ22/00164 dated 1 August 2022.
Section 54C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) requires this
office to make a fresh decision within 30 days after the day we received
your application.
Because we received your application on 1 August 2022, we must make a
fresh decision by 31 August 2022. Your application will be allocated to a
review officer with no previous involvement with the earlier decision.
If you have any questions, please contact me at the details provided
below.
Kind regards,
Janani
[1][IMG] Janani Balasubramanian |
Paralegal
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au
1300 363 992
| [3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
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Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
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Dear Julie,
There was an administrative error in the subject line of the
acknowledgment email sent to you below. The OAIC reference number for this
matter is FOIREQ22/00204.
Kind regards,
Janani
[1][IMG] Janani Balasubramanian |
Paralegal
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au
1300 363 992
| [3][email address]
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From: OAIC - Legal
Sent: Tuesday, 9 August 2022 4:30 PM
To: [FOI #9071 email]
Subject: Your internal review application – FOIREQ22/00194
Dear Julie,
I refer to your email of 1 August 2022.
We acknowledge receipt of your application for internal review of the
OAIC’s FOI decision FOIREQ22/00164 dated 1 August 2022.
Section 54C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) requires this
office to make a fresh decision within 30 days after the day we received
your application.
Because we received your application on 1 August 2022, we must make a
fresh decision by 31 August 2022. Your application will be allocated to a
review officer with no previous involvement with the earlier decision.
If you have any questions, please contact me at the details provided
below.
Kind regards,
Janani
[9][IMG] Janani Balasubramanian |
Paralegal
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW
2001 | [10]oaic.gov.au
1300 363 992
| [11][email address]
[15]Subscribe [16]Subscribe
[12]Facebook | [13]LinkedIn | [14]Twitter | icon to Information
Matters
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
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Dear Julie
Please find attached an internal review decision.
Kind regards
Emma.
[1]O A I C logo Emma Liddle | Director, Legal
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9942 4153 |
[2][email address]
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From: OAIC - Legal
Sent: Tuesday, 9 August 2022 4:56 PM
To: [FOI #9071 email]
Subject: RE: Your internal review application – FOIREQ22/00204
Dear Julie,
There was an administrative error in the subject line of the
acknowledgment email sent to you below. The OAIC reference number for this
matter is FOIREQ22/00204.
Kind regards,
Janani
[8][IMG] Janani Balasubramanian |
Paralegal
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW
2001 | [9]oaic.gov.au
1300 363 992
| [10][email address]
[14]Subscribe [15]Subscribe
[11]Facebook | [12]LinkedIn | [13]Twitter | icon to Information
Matters
From: OAIC - Legal
Sent: Tuesday, 9 August 2022 4:30 PM
To: [16][FOI #9071 email]
Subject: Your internal review application – FOIREQ22/00194
Dear Julie,
I refer to your email of 1 August 2022.
We acknowledge receipt of your application for internal review of the
OAIC’s FOI decision FOIREQ22/00164 dated 1 August 2022.
Section 54C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) requires this
office to make a fresh decision within 30 days after the day we received
your application.
Because we received your application on 1 August 2022, we must make a
fresh decision by 31 August 2022. Your application will be allocated to a
review officer with no previous involvement with the earlier decision.
If you have any questions, please contact me at the details provided
below.
Kind regards,
Janani
[17][IMG] Janani Balasubramanian |
Paralegal
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW
2001 | [18]oaic.gov.au
1300 363 992
| [19][email address]
[23]Subscribe [24]Subscribe
[20]Facebook | [21]LinkedIn | [22]Twitter | icon to Information
Matters
Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
References
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Julie left an annotation ()
A significant lack of transparency from the OAIC given the non-identified information in scope could not reasonably be made identifiable. Sent for review.
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
And another 100% access refusal from the OAIC that is completely unjustified.
The OAIC hawks in its emails about open access to government information, while providing none.