Compliments of FOI disclosure log
Posty made this Freedom of Information request to Department of the Treasury as part of a batch sent to 6 authorities
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear [Authority name] FOI Team,
I’d like to start 2019 by thanking you all for your hard work and commitment to transparency over the years, and for your correct interpretation of section 11C of the FOI Act.
In particular, I appreciate the fact that in 2018 (and other years) for each FOI request you have made unredacted and/or redacted documents available online for download for the public from your website as per the standard set by the Office of the Information Commissioner FOI log.
It has been noticed that some federal agencies (other than yourselves) are choosing to put statements in their FOI log, by each item, the equivalent of “contact us for access to the document”. In some egregious cases they are doing this for all FOI items!
You are setting a great standard for FOI in this country, and this deserves recognition. I can’t afford any award but you have been named a “Leader of the Pack” in my article about the aforementioned phenomenon which will shortly be published.
I’d like the public to know whether this has been a thankless task or not.
I request, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, copies of the following documents:
All email (or the last 3 years, if that is too voluminous) sent to the Freedom of Information Team’s email address that feature compliments relating to this department's Freedom of Information Disclosure Log.
If there’s too many of them, and the redaction would require too much effort to do, a simple number of documents over the time period is fine (a year breakdown would be great but I don’t want to push it).
If none exist—that’s fine too. I’d like to know.
If you require any time extension, I grant an extra 30 days.
Happy New Year!
Regards,
Posty
Sent request to Department of the Treasury again.
We acknowledge receipt of your request.
-----Original Message-----
From: Posty [mailto:[FOI #5186 email]]
Sent: Wednesday, 9 January 2019 9:00 PM
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Compliments of FOI disclosure log
Dear [Authority name] FOI Team,
I’d like to start 2019 by thanking you all for your hard work and commitment to transparency over the years, and for your correct interpretation of section 11C of the FOI Act.
In particular, I appreciate the fact that in 2018 (and other years) for each FOI request you have made unredacted and/or redacted documents available online for download for the public from your website as per the standard set by the Office of the Information Commissioner FOI log.
It has been noticed that some federal agencies (other than yourselves) are choosing to put statements in their FOI log, by each item, the equivalent of “contact us for access to the document”. In some egregious cases they are doing this for all FOI items!
You are setting a great standard for FOI in this country, and this deserves recognition. I can’t afford any award but you have been named a “Leader of the Pack” in my article about the aforementioned phenomenon which will shortly be published.
I’d like the public to know whether this has been a thankless task or not.
I request, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, copies of the following documents:
All email (or the last 3 years, if that is too voluminous) sent to the Freedom of Information Team’s email address that feature compliments relating to this department's Freedom of Information Disclosure Log.
If there’s too many of them, and the redaction would require too much effort to do, a simple number of documents over the time period is fine (a year breakdown would be great but I don’t want to push it).
If none exist—that’s fine too. I’d like to know.
If you require any time extension, I grant an extra 30 days.
Happy New Year!
Regards,
Posty
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Dear Posty
The Treasury are responding to the request you submitted seeking:
All email (or the last 3 years, if that is too voluminous) sent to the
Freedom of Information Team’s email address that feature compliments
relating to this department's Freedom of Information Disclosure Log.
If there’s too many of them, and the redaction would require too much
effort to do, a simple number of documents over the time period is fine (a
year breakdown would be great but I don’t want to push it).
If none exist—that’s fine too. I’d like to know.
We undertook a through electronic search for documents within the scope of
your request. This search included the FOI current and archived emails and
electronic records management system. We did not locate any documents
matching the scope of your request.
As we do not have any documents we are responding to you outside the
formal FOI process on the basis that you advised – “If none exist—that’s
fine too. I’d like to know”.
Regards
Freedom of Information Officer
The Treasury
Ph: +61 2 6263 2800
e: [1][email address]
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Please Note: The information contained in this e-mail 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 e-mail is unauthorised. If you
have received this e-mail by error please notify the sender immediately by
reply e-mail and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
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Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
The Department says they didn't get the request, so I've resent it at their request.