Complete AEC records of Periodic Disclosures and Electoral Disclosures
Dear Australian Electoral Commission,
I write seeking access to a complete copy of the periodic disclosures database which stores the data displayed on http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au.
Please supply the data in an appropriate machine readable format, for example, SQL or CSV.
The data should include all tables and columns which make up the database.
Please initially treat this as a request for administrative access. If the request cannot be fulfilled under administrative access please treat this as a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.
I also note the onus rests with the agency to prove why any information should not be released under the Act and I request the agency provide evidence in support of any assumptions or assertions used to justify non-disclosure.
Yours faithfully,
Benjamin
Thank you for contacting us.
This is an automatic response from the Australian Electoral Commission to confirm we have received your email.
For more information on enrolling to vote, federal elections or the AEC, visit www.aec.gov.au.
Please do not respond to this email.
Benjamin
Right to Know Organisation
I refer to your email dated 10 July 2017 11:54 AM to the Australian
Electoral Commission (‘AEC’) in which you request (your ‘FOI Request’)
access under the [1]Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the ‘FOI Act’)
access to information about the Annual Returns Locator Service published
by the AEC.
2 I am writing today to give you a decision about
access to documents that you requested in your FOI Request.
Summary
3 I, Owen Jones, Senior Lawyer of the AEC, am an
officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to FOI requests.
4 Specifically you sought access to:
a complete copy of the periodic disclosures database which stores the data
displayed on [2]http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au to be supplied in a
machine readable format, for example, SQL or CSV that includes all tables
and columns which make up the database.
5 The AEC’s Annual Returns Locator Service (the
‘Service’) consists of a number of documents in a database, some of which
are published by the AEC at [3]http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au and
certain historical fields that are not published by the AEC for reference.
For convenience I have treated the published part of the Service as one
document and the unpublished fields as discrete documents.
6 I identified 9 documents that fell within the scope
of your request.
7 I did this by directing inquiries to the AEC’s
Disclosure, Assurance and Enforcement Branch which is responsible for
publishing the Service.
8 The schedule of relevant documents in the attached
Acrobat file LS6130 Schedule of Released Docs.pdf (‘Attachment A’)
provides a description of each document that falls within the scope of
your request and the access decision for each of those documents.
9 With regard to the documents that you requested (set
out in Attachment A), I have decided to:
(a) grant access to 8 documents; and
(b) refuse access to the remaining document.
10 More information, including my reasons for my decision,
is set out below.
Decision and reasons for decision
Decision
11 With regard to the documents identified in Attachment
A, I have decided:
(a) to grant access in full to Document Nos. 2 − 9; and
(b) to refuse access to Document No. 1 to which paragraph (d) of
the definition of ‘document’ provided by subsection 4(1) of the FOI
applies with the consequence that this document is not included in the
scope of that which may be requested as a document under subsection 15(2)
of the FOI Act in an FOI Request.
Material taken into account
12 I have taken the following material into account in
making my decision:
(a) the content of the documents that fall within the scope of the
FOI Request;
(b) the content of Document No. 1;
(c) the FOI Act, specifically sections [insert applicable
sections]; and
(d) the guidelines (‘[4]FOI Guidelines’] issued by the Australian
Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act, specifically
paragraphs 2.29 – 2.44.
Reasons
13 Attachment A indicates each document to which access is
refused. My reasons for refusing access are given below.
Documents out of scope of an FOI Request
14 Section 15 of the FOI Act enables a person to seek
access, among other things, to a document of an agency. The AEC is an
agency for the purposes of the FOI Act.
15 In so far as is material subsection 15(1) of the FOI
Act provides:
15 Requests for access
Persons may request access
(1) Subject to section 15A, a person who wishes to obtain access to a
document of an agency or an official document of a Minister may request
access to the document.
16 Section 15A of the FOI Act makes provision with respect
to requests for access to personnel records and has no relevance to the
FOI Request.
17 The expression ‘document of an agency’ is defined by
subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act and depends on the definition given by that
subsection to the word ‘document’.
18 In so far as is material, subsection 4(1) of the FOI
Act provides:
4 Interpretation
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:
document of an agency: a document is a document of an agency if:
(a) the document is in the possession of the agency, whether created
in the agency or received in the agency; or
(b) in order to comply with section 6C, the agency has taken
contractual measures to ensure that it receives the document.
document includes:
(a) any of, or any part of any of, the following things:
(i) any paper or other material on which there is writing;
(ii) a map, plan, drawing or photograph;
(iii) any paper or other material on which there are marks, figures,
symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to
interpret them;
(iv) any article or material from which sounds, images or writings
are capable of being reproduced with or without the aid of any other
article or device;
(v) any article on which information has been stored or recorded,
either mechanically or electronically;
(vi) any other record of information; or
(b) any copy, reproduction or duplicate of such a thing; or
(c) any part of such a copy, reproduction or duplicate;
but does not include:
(d) material maintained for reference purposes that is otherwise
publicly available; or
(e) Cabinet notebooks.
19 Document 1 is material maintained for reference
purposes by the AEC that is otherwise publicly available. The description
of each document in Attachment A indicates the universal resource locator
(‘URL’) for that document by which it may be accessed.
20 It follows that the carve out in paragraph (d) of the
definition of ‘document’ provided by subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act
applies to Document No 1 with the outcome that the document is not
included in the expression ‘document of an agency’ and thus cannot be
requested under subsection 15(1) of the FOI Act.
21 For this reason, I refused access to Document No. 1.
Your review rights
22 If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply
for internal review or Information Commissioner review of the decision. We
encourage you to seek internal review as a first step as it may provide a
more rapid resolution of your concerns.
Internal review
23 Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in
writing to the AEC for an internal review of my decision. The internal
review application must be made within 30 days of the date of this email.
24 Where possible please attach reasons why you believe
review of the decision is necessary. The internal review will be carried
out by another officer within 30 days.
Information Commissioner review
25 Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the
Australian Information Commissioner to review my decision. An application
for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in writing within
60 days of the date of this email, and be lodged in one of the following
ways:
online:
[5]https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/f...
email: [6][email address]
post: GPO Box 52189, Sydney NSW 2001
in person: Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
26 More information about Information Commissioner review
is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
website. Go to [7]www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-reviews.
Questions about this decision
27 If you wish to discuss this decision, please contact me
at:
email: [8][email address]
fax: 02 6293 7657
post: Locked bag 4007, Canberra ACT 2601
Transmission of released Documents
I attach Documents Nos 5, 8 and 9.
I will transmit the remaining documents by separate email(s). I note that
some of the documents are large. Their sizes are:
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|Document No. |Size |
| | |
| |(Kb) |
|-------------------------------+-------------------------------|
|2 | 27,871|
|-------------------------------+-------------------------------|
|3 | 72,703|
|-------------------------------+-------------------------------|
|4 | 86,497|
|-------------------------------+-------------------------------|
|6 | 133847|
|-------------------------------+-------------------------------|
|7 | 30,864|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
Please alert me if you do not receive these documents.
Regards
Owen Jones
Owen Jones | Senior Lawyer
Legal Services Section | Legal and Procurement Branch
Australian Electoral Commission
T: (02) 6271 4528 | F: (02) 6293 7657
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[9]Australian Electoral Commission logo [10]Australian Electoral
Commission
This email may contain legal advice that is subject to legal professional
privilege. Care should be taken to avoid unintended waiver of that
privilege. The Australian Electoral Commission’s Chief Legal Officer
should be consulted prior to any decision to disclose the existence or
content of any advice contained in this email to a third party.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin [[11]mailto:[FOI #3714 email]]
Sent: Monday, 10 July 2017 11:54 AM
To: INFO <[12][AEC request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Complete AEC records of Periodic
Disclosures and Electoral Disclosures
Dear Australian Electoral Commission,
I write seeking access to a complete copy of the periodic disclosures
database which stores the data displayed on
[13]http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au.
Please supply the data in an appropriate machine readable format, for
example, SQL or CSV.
The data should include all tables and columns which make up the database.
Please initially treat this as a request for administrative access. If the
request cannot be fulfilled under administrative access please treat this
as a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.
I also note the onus rests with the agency to prove why any information
should not be released under the Act and I request the agency provide
evidence in support of any assumptions or assertions used to justify
non-disclosure.
Yours faithfully,
Benjamin
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[14][FOI #3714 email]
Is [15][AEC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Australian Electoral Commission? If so, please contact us
using this form:
[16]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[17]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER:
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return email and delete all copies. If this email or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the email or attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2...
2. http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/
3. http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/
4. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
5. https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/f...
6. mailto:[email address]
7. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
8. mailto:[email address]
9. http://emailfooter.aec.gov.au/email/
10. http://emailfooter.aec.gov.au/email-promo/
11. mailto:[FOI #3714 email]
12. mailto:[AEC request email]
13. http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/
14. mailto:[FOI #3714 email]
15. mailto:[AEC request email]
16. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
17. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
Benjamin
Right to Know Organisation
I refer to my email dated 9 August 2017 4:21 PM.
I have encountered difficulties in transmitting Acrobat file LS6130
Released Document No. 2.pdf.
Please let me know what arrangements you have made to receive the
documents.
Regards
Owen Jones
Owen Jones | Senior Lawyer
Legal Services Section | Legal and Procurement Branch
Australian Electoral Commission
T: (02) 6271 4528 | F: (02) 6293 7657
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]Australian Electoral Commission logo [2]Australian Electoral
Commission
This email may contain legal advice that is subject to legal professional
privilege. Care should be taken to avoid unintended waiver of that
privilege. The Australian Electoral Commission’s Chief Legal Officer
should be consulted prior to any decision to disclose the existence or
content of any advice contained in this email to a third party.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Owen Jones
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2017 4:21 PM
To: '[FOI #3714 email]'
<[FOI #3714 email]>
Subject: Your FOI Request LS6130 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Benjamin
Right to Know Organisation
I refer to your email dated 10 July 2017 11:54 AM to the Australian
Electoral Commission (‘AEC’) in which you request (your ‘FOI Request’)
access under the [3]Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the ‘FOI Act’)
access to information about the Annual Returns Locator Service published
by the AEC.
2 I am writing today to give you a decision about
access to documents that you requested in your FOI Request.
Summary
3 I, Owen Jones, Senior Lawyer of the AEC, am an
officer authorised under section 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in
relation to FOI requests.
4 Specifically you sought access to:
a complete copy of the periodic disclosures database which stores the data
displayed on [4]http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au to be supplied in a
machine readable format, for example, SQL or CSV that includes all tables
and columns which make up the database.
5 The AEC’s Annual Returns Locator Service (the
‘Service’) consists of a number of documents in a database, some of which
are published by the AEC at [5]http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au and
certain historical fields that are not published by the AEC for reference.
For convenience I have treated the published part of the Service as one
document and the unpublished fields as discrete documents.
6 I identified 9 documents that fell within the scope
of your request.
7 I did this by directing inquiries to the AEC’s
Disclosure, Assurance and Enforcement Branch which is responsible for
publishing the Service.
8 The schedule of relevant documents in the attached
Acrobat file LS6130 Schedule of Released Docs.pdf (‘Attachment A’)
provides a description of each document that falls within the scope of
your request and the access decision for each of those documents.
9 With regard to the documents that you requested (set
out in Attachment A), I have decided to:
(a) grant access to 8 documents; and
(b) refuse access to the remaining document.
10 More information, including my reasons for my decision,
is set out below.
Decision and reasons for decision
Decision
11 With regard to the documents identified in Attachment
A, I have decided:
(a) to grant access in full to Document Nos. 2 − 9; and
(b) to refuse access to Document No. 1 to which paragraph (d) of
the definition of ‘document’ provided by subsection 4(1) of the FOI
applies with the consequence that this document is not included in the
scope of that which may be requested as a document under subsection 15(2)
of the FOI Act in an FOI Request.
Material taken into account
12 I have taken the following material into account in
making my decision:
(a) the content of the documents that fall within the scope of the
FOI Request;
(b) the content of Document No. 1;
(c) the FOI Act, specifically sections [insert applicable
sections]; and
(d) the guidelines (‘[6]FOI Guidelines’] issued by the Australian
Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act, specifically
paragraphs 2.29 – 2.44.
Reasons
13 Attachment A indicates each document to which access is
refused. My reasons for refusing access are given below.
Documents out of scope of an FOI Request
14 Section 15 of the FOI Act enables a person to seek
access, among other things, to a document of an agency. The AEC is an
agency for the purposes of the FOI Act.
15 In so far as is material subsection 15(1) of the FOI
Act provides:
15 Requests for access
Persons may request access
(1) Subject to section 15A, a person who wishes to obtain access to a
document of an agency or an official document of a Minister may request
access to the document.
16 Section 15A of the FOI Act makes provision with respect
to requests for access to personnel records and has no relevance to the
FOI Request.
17 The expression ‘document of an agency’ is defined by
subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act and depends on the definition given by that
subsection to the word ‘document’.
18 In so far as is material, subsection 4(1) of the FOI
Act provides:
4 Interpretation
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:
document of an agency: a document is a document of an agency if:
(a) the document is in the possession of the agency, whether created
in the agency or received in the agency; or
(b) in order to comply with section 6C, the agency has taken
contractual measures to ensure that it receives the document.
document includes:
(a) any of, or any part of any of, the following things:
(i) any paper or other material on which there is writing;
(ii) a map, plan, drawing or photograph;
(iii) any paper or other material on which there are marks, figures,
symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to
interpret them;
(iv) any article or material from which sounds, images or writings
are capable of being reproduced with or without the aid of any other
article or device;
(v) any article on which information has been stored or recorded,
either mechanically or electronically;
(vi) any other record of information; or
(b) any copy, reproduction or duplicate of such a thing; or
(c) any part of such a copy, reproduction or duplicate;
but does not include:
(d) material maintained for reference purposes that is otherwise
publicly available; or
(e) Cabinet notebooks.
19 Document 1 is material maintained for reference
purposes by the AEC that is otherwise publicly available. The description
of each document in Attachment A indicates the universal resource locator
(‘URL’) for that document by which it may be accessed.
20 It follows that the carve out in paragraph (d) of the
definition of ‘document’ provided by subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act
applies to Document No 1 with the outcome that the document is not
included in the expression ‘document of an agency’ and thus cannot be
requested under subsection 15(1) of the FOI Act.
21 For this reason, I refused access to Document No. 1.
Your review rights
22 If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply
for internal review or Information Commissioner review of the decision. We
encourage you to seek internal review as a first step as it may provide a
more rapid resolution of your concerns.
Internal review
23 Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in
writing to the AEC for an internal review of my decision. The internal
review application must be made within 30 days of the date of this email.
24 Where possible please attach reasons why you believe
review of the decision is necessary. The internal review will be carried
out by another officer within 30 days.
Information Commissioner review
25 Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the
Australian Information Commissioner to review my decision. An application
for review by the Information Commissioner must be made in writing within
60 days of the date of this email, and be lodged in one of the following
ways:
online:
[7]https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/f...
email: [8][email address]
post: GPO Box 52189, Sydney NSW 2001
in person: Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
26 More information about Information Commissioner review
is available on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
website. Go to [9]www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-reviews.
Questions about this decision
27 If you wish to discuss this decision, please contact me
at:
email: [10][email address]
fax: 02 6293 7657
post: Locked bag 4007, Canberra ACT 2601
Transmission of released Documents
I attach Documents Nos 5, 8 and 9.
I will transmit the remaining documents by separate email(s). I note that
some of the documents are large. Their sizes are:
Document No. Size
(Kb)
2 27,871
3 72,703
4 86,497
6 133847
7 30,864
Please alert me if you do not receive these documents.
Regards
Owen Jones
Owen Jones | Senior Lawyer
Legal Services Section | Legal and Procurement Branch
Australian Electoral Commission
T: (02) 6271 4528 | F: (02) 6293 7657
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[11]Australian Electoral Commission logo [12]Australian Electoral
Commission
This email may contain legal advice that is subject to legal professional
privilege. Care should be taken to avoid unintended waiver of that
privilege. The Australian Electoral Commission’s Chief Legal Officer
should be consulted prior to any decision to disclose the existence or
content of any advice contained in this email to a third party.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin [[13]mailto:[FOI #3714 email]]
Sent: Monday, 10 July 2017 11:54 AM
To: INFO <[14][AEC request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Complete AEC records of Periodic
Disclosures and Electoral Disclosures
Dear Australian Electoral Commission,
I write seeking access to a complete copy of the periodic disclosures
database which stores the data displayed on
[15]http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au.
Please supply the data in an appropriate machine readable format, for
example, SQL or CSV.
The data should include all tables and columns which make up the database.
Please initially treat this as a request for administrative access. If the
request cannot be fulfilled under administrative access please treat this
as a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.
I also note the onus rests with the agency to prove why any information
should not be released under the Act and I request the agency provide
evidence in support of any assumptions or assertions used to justify
non-disclosure.
Yours faithfully,
Benjamin
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[16][FOI #3714 email]
Is [17][AEC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Australian Electoral Commission? If so, please contact us
using this form:
[18]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[19]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER:
If you have received this transmission in error please notify us
immediately by return email and delete all copies. If this email or any
attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute
waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of
information in the email or attachments.
References
Visible links
1. http://emailfooter.aec.gov.au/email/
2. http://emailfooter.aec.gov.au/email-promo/
3. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2...
4. http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/
5. http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/
6. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
7. https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/f...
8. mailto:[email address]
9. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
10. mailto:[email address]
11. http://emailfooter.aec.gov.au/email/
12. http://emailfooter.aec.gov.au/email-promo/
13. mailto:[FOI #3714 email]
14. mailto:[AEC request email]
15. http://periodicdisclosures.aec.gov.au/
16. mailto:[FOI #3714 email]
17. mailto:[AEC request email]
18. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
19. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...