Dear Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy,

In December 2010, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy announced the Cyber Safety Help Button, a $136,000 Adobe Air application which simulated a desktop shortcut to the ACMA's website.

In late 2011, the Minister also announced similar Cyber Safety Help Buttons for mobile platforms, in the form of home screen bookmarks to the ACMA's website. On information and belief, the Canberra software developers known as the Saltbush Group were contracted to supply the mobile applications to the Department, and were reportedly the recipients of approximately $110,000 upon delivery of the software.

I request disclosure of the following documents:

1. Contracts executed between the Commonwealth and any other entity for the supply of the original 2010 desktop Cyber Safety Help Button,

2. Contracts executed between the Commonwealth and Saltbush Group, or any related entities, for the supply of mobile versions of the Cyber Safety Help Button,

3. The names of any other software developers contracted for supply of Cyber Safety Help Button software on any platform (published or unpublished), related contracts executed by the Commonwealth, and/or descriptions of any deliverables specified for supply,

4. Any amendments to said contracts, or variations to deliverables agreed subsequent to the contracts' execution; and

5. Invoices received by the Commonwealth pertaining to the documents requested above.

In releasing responsive documents, please take particular care to redact any secret usernames and passwords that may be contained therein.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Newton

Dear FOI,

In your response to my FOI request, you have estimated that it costs over $1000 to decide whether to release 280 pages of the documents I have requested.

I believe the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest, as shown by the presence of media reporting of the fact that the Apple iPhone version of the Cyber Safety Help Button was rejected for being indistinguishable from a hyperlink, and the fact that the Department does not possess the source code; and I intend to request review on that basis.

However, I am also considering whether narrowing the scope of the request is likely to yield the information I require.

In my request, I described five categories of information:

1. Contacts executed between the Commonwealth and any other entity for the supply of the original 2010 desktop Cyber Safety Help Button,

2. Contracts executed between the Commonwealth and Saltbush Group, or any related entities, for the supply of mobile versions of the Cyber Safety Help Button,

3. The names of any other software developers contracted for supply of Cyber Safety Help Button software on any platform (published or unpublished), related contracts executed by the Commonwealth, and/or descriptions of any deliverables specified for supply,

4. Any amendments to said contracts, or variations to deliverables agreed subsequent to the contracts' execution; and

5. Invoices received by the Commonwealth pertaining to the documents requested above.

You have carried out discovery, and assert that you have found 31 documents (280 pages) responsive to the categories above.

In the interests of efficiency, can you please provide me with a breakdown of how many of those 31 documents and 280 pages pertain to each category described above?

Thank you,

Yours sincerely,

Mark Newton

Dear FOI,

Thank you for your letter of April 18 2013 containing clarifications of documents requested under my FOI request, your ref FOI 34-1213.

In my original request, I described five categories of documents. You have provided me with a breakdown of documents and pages for each category. I would like to limit the scope of my request as follows:

Please disclose:

* The names of companies who executed contracts with the Commonwealth pertaining to Category 1.

* The three documents responsive to category 2.

* The names of the software developers responsive to category 3.

* None of category 4.

* All of category 5.

I estimate that the request narrowed in this manner will comprise of significantly less than 100 pages, and would be of similar scope to other FOI requests that have not attracted a processing charge.

I also contend that the public interest is served in waiving any charges for my request, given that the conduct of the Government in relation to the Cyber Safety Help Button apps has been a matter of some controversy.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Newton