UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Mr Gothe-Snape,

Thank you for your email seeking access to documents under the FOI Act.
As it currently stands your request is not considered valid in
accordance with section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act. While an assumption
could be made with regard to what you are seeking access to, you really
haven't provided enough information for your request to proceed at this
stage. Could you please provide clarification with regard to what the
'competitive evaluation process' relates to.

I would also point out at this stage that requests which seek access to
'all documents' relating to a particular issue can be considered to be
too broad as there is simply no way of ensuring that all documents
relating to a particular issue have been captured, particularly in a
department the size of Defence. While it may not be the case in this
instance it may also assist if you could provide some further
information regarding the types of documents that you are seeking.

Finally, you may also like to consider advising if you are happy to
exclude duplicate documents.

Looking forward to your response so we can validate your request and
begin processing. Please feel free to contact me if you have any
queries.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Mr Gothe-Snape,

Thank you for your email, which I received today following a public
holiday here in Brisbane yesterday. Your request was registered today
as FOI 043/15/16.

I note that you revised your scope to:

"...copies of all emails or documents within the Defence Department's
electronic document management system containing the specific phrase
"competitive evaluation process" created between 1 February 2014 and 1
February 2015."

As I mentioned in my initial email requests for 'all' documents
concerning a particular subject will likely attract refusal under
section 24AA of the FOI Act. In this case, in order to respond to your
request searches would need to be undertaken of the emails of over
100,000 personnel for any reference to 'competitive evaluation process'.
It is considered that the workload involved in attempting to do so would
involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources of the
agency.

Taking the above into consideration for the purposes of section 24 of
the FOI Act, Defence considers that a 'practical refusal reason' exists
in relation to your FOI request. Specifically, the work that would be
involved in undertaking the required searches would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of specialist officers in Defence from
their normal duties.

Consequently, in accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act, we are
required to consult with you advising of the intention to refuse access
to the request in its current form.

In accordance with paragraph 24AB(2)(c) of the FOI Act I am the
nominated person with whom you should contact with a view to agreeing to
one of the following options:

a. withdraw your request
b. revise your request, or
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.

You are required to contact me within 14 days of the date of this email.
Also, please note that, in accordance with section 24AB(9) of the FOI
Act, Defence is required to undertake this consultation process once.

Should you wish to revise the scope of your request I would suggest you
consider limiting the search to the relevant area. I presume the matter
you are referring to is the SEA1000 project. As such, you may wish to
consider revising the scope of your request to documents authored or
held by the Future Submarine Program Office. I would also suggest that
you may like to further revise the scope of your request to specific
documents, for example advice sent to the Minister.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries about this
matter. I am happy to discuss options with regard to revising your
scope if that would assist.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Hi Jackson,

Thanks for your email, to undertake a search such as the one you
mentioned, even without actually extracting any documents, would be
extremely time consuming and as such we consider that the practical
refusal reason still exists in relation to this request.

As I mentioned in my email, to respond to your query as it stands,
searches would need to be undertaken of every Defence employees email
system(APS, ADF and Contractor). There are over 100, 000 employees in
Defence. The way your request currently stands, we would be required to
approach ALL Defence personnel to ask them to undertake a search of
their email system. As you can see this would be a huge task and would
easily meet the threshold of what is an unreasonable diversion of
resources.

An alternative to this would be for the ICT area to undertake searches,
again we consider this would be a mammoth task and an unreasonable
diversion. As an example we recently went through the process of
downloading a single employees records and the process took upwards of
16 hours. Not to mention the cost of undertaking the process. There
are many other factors to consider for instance how long Defence
maintains its back up tapes and how to determine which staff were
employed during the time you have specified.

With regard to your final sentence, I understand that you are looking to
understand the historical context in the department. Given the
announcement on 20 February 2015 which referred to the concept of
'competitive evaluation process' related to the SEA1000 Future Submarine
Project I would suggest you limit the scope of your request to that
area.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Hi Jackson,

I am making some inquiries within the department on this matter, as it
stands below we would still be required to search the whole department.
I am attempting to narrow it down and seek some firm advice about the
term to assist you with moving your request forward.

I am always available to discuss if you wish, my number is below.
Otherwise I will be in contact once I have some more firm advice as
advised above.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Jackson,

Further to my last email, while that advice still stands and the
practical refusal reason still exists I have made enquiries as I
mentioned and have one document that may assist.

The document I have identified that may meet your requirements is an
internal brief, while it is still relating to submarines generally, it
discusses the term competitive evaluation process and it's use in
Defence.

Taking the above into account I suggest you consider revising the scope
of your request to:

"The document known as QB15-000025 dated 11 February 2015."

If you wish to proceed with the above mentioned revised scope please
advise and processing will begin. If we do not hear from you by 1
October 2015 your request will be deemed withdrawn.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Jackson,

Thank you for your email. I have decided not to impose any processing
charges in relation to this request and have referred the request for
processing.

The statutory deadline for a response to your request will expire on 19
October 2015.

Should you have any queries about your request please feel free to
contact me.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Mr Gothe-Snape,
 
Please find attached the decision relating to FOI 043/15/16, along with
the document in the form approved for release.
 
Kind regards
 
Theresa Stinson
Assistant Director - Media Case Management FOI
Ministerial and Executive Coordination & Communication Division
 
Building F065
Level 2-012
Gallipoli Barracks
ENOGGERA   QLD   4051
 
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
 
Alternative email: [1][email address]
 
Website:[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/index.htm
Privacy Statement:[3]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
 
FOI Act: [4]http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C0...
FOI Guidelines:
[5]http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
 

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.

References

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UNCLASSIFIED

Hi Jackson,

Thanks for your advice, as a department we do not redact phone numbers and names of employees unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good morning,

The document was provided to me in word form, which I converted to PDF. Accordingly, the metadata you refer to relates to the PDF creation rather than the original Word document.

Nonetheless, I have contacted the area who provided the document to confirm whether there was any other versions. I will update you as soon as I receive a response.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good morning Jackson,

Further to my last, attached is an updated version of the document with the mobile phone numbers removed. There was an oversight and these would normally be removed as you indicated. The landline numbers and names are ok to remain.

The attached version is the document that will be published on the Disclosure Log. It would be appreciated if you could also use this version if you intend to publish it.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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UNCLASSIFIED

Good morning Mr Gothe-Snape,

Further to my last, the relevant area has confirmed that the original version of this document was created on 11 February 2015.

Kind regards

Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359

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