Dear Australian Public Service Commission,

In an article in the Canberra Times of 11 April 2016 headed "Australia's top public servants call for FOI reform to hide advice from public" (http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...), Martin Parkinson, head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet was reported as having made various statements about amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. Broadly, the Canberra Times article claimed that Mr Parkinson had said (a) "The FOI act does not afford sufficient protection to public servants" , (b) "As leaders we need to use exemptions appropriately, but I would support going further and advocating for changes to FOI laws to protect the deliberative process." (c) "[This is] not to reduce our accountability, nor to protect us from stuff ups we may have made, but to enhance the capacity to give truly frank and fearless advice that good policy design needs." The article added that the remarks made by Martin Parkinson "were supported by Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd, who said the bureaucracy was subject to sufficient scrutiny and accountability beyond FOI laws. According to the article, John Lloyd said "We have a high level of accountability in the public service with at least three senate hearings a year, an auditor general, ombudsman, privacy commissioner, information commissioner, and a public service commission just to name some".

I would like to know the answer to the following question" "Did the remarks made by John Lloyd reflect (i) Government policy, or (ii) the official position of the Australian Public Service Commission, or (iii) his private personal views?" If it is possible to provide a simple answer to that question under administrative arrangements or through some other avenue, then that would be most convenient, least onerous and probably the most transparently forthright.

If it is not possible to answer that question then please treat this as a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the following: any (single) document created by the Australian Public Service Commission between 1 January 2016 and 11 April 2016 indicating that the reported comments of John Lloyd reflect the official position of the Australian Public Service Commission. If some further limitation is absolutely necessary to avoid a practical refusal decision, I would seek only a document actually created by or for John Lloyd.

Yours faithfully,

Mark R. Diamond

Dear Ms Futol,

Thank you very much for the prompt and clear reply. You can certainly treat the application as closed.

Kind regards,
Mark Diamond