Correspondence between the Department and Right to Know - Take 2
Harry Witherspoon
Dear Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources,
I would like to see ALL documents that CONTAIN correspondence between the Department and Right to Know in relation to censorship of officer details in FOI requests.
I note that take-down requests were made in relation to officers on multiple occasions, for example (and not limited to):
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/t...
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/d...
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/e...
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/s...
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/r...
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/e...
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/c...
Please also include any subsequent correspondence pertaining to the email thread released here:
- https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/c...
For sake of search and retrieval, many of these requests were made by Erin Higuchi.
Finally, the entirety of the content in all correspondence is relevant to the request as I requested documents that contain a particular subject matter (rather than the subject matter itself) - "correspondence between the Department and Right to Know in relation to censorship of officer details in FOI requests" is only specified as a means to locate the documents requested.
Yours faithfully,
Harry Witherspoon
Dear Mr Witherspoon
The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the department)
has received your Freedom of Information request of 8 February 2021
(attached).
I am writing on behalf of the department to acknowledge receipt of your
request.
Currently, a decision is due to you by 11 March 2021. However, this
timeline may be affected by the requirement to undertake consultation with
affected third parties, or if the department determines you are liable to
pay a charge in relation to your request. You will be notified by the
department if charges are liable or if a third party consultation is
required.
Confirmation of Scope - personal information
For documents that fall within the scope of the request, it is the
practice of the department to withhold:
o the names, signatures and contact details of junior staff; that is:
o Commonwealth staff who are not in the Senior Executive Service
(SES); and
o Ministerial staff below the level of Chief of Staff; and
o the mobile phone numbers of SES officers.
The names and other details of SES officers will be released unless the
information is exempt from disclosure.
Confirmation from you that you are not seeking 'personal information'
(i.e. the names and contact details of any individuals, or any information
that could reasonably identify an individual) may enable a more timely and
cost effective processing of your request.
Therefore, could you please confirm if you are happy to exclude personal
information in the documents relating to:
o Commonwealth staff; and
o other third party individuals.
If you are seeking access to specific types of personal information, could
you please specify. If you are not seeking access to any personal
information, you can simply reply to this email with 'no personal
information requested'.
Responding to this email
Could you please provide the above clarification at your earliest
convenience, but by no later than 17 February 2021.
If you have any questions, please contact the department’s FOI Team by
email at [1][email address].
Yours sincerely,
____
Christina Graves
Special Counsel
[2][email address]
MinterEllison MinterEllison Building 25 National Circuit Forrest ACT 2603
[3]minterellison.com Follow us on [4]LinkedIn and [5]Twitter
■
MinterEllison has a [6]24-hour chatbot helpline offering guidance on a
range of COVID-19 related topics and a COVID-19 Hub [7]on our website.
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References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.minterellison.com/
4. http://www.linkedin.com/company/minter-e...
5. http://twitter.com/minterellison
6. https://www.minterellison.com/covid-19-i...
7. https://www.minterellison.com/articles/c...
Dear Mr Witherspoon
Please see attached a notice of charges and consultation issued by the
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.
Yours sincerely,
____
Christina Graves
Special Counsel
[1][email address]
MinterEllison MinterEllison Building 25 National Circuit Forrest ACT 2603
[2]minterellison.com Follow us on [3]LinkedIn and [4]Twitter
■
MinterEllison has a [5]24-hour chatbot helpline offering guidance on a
range of COVID-19 related topics and a COVID-19 Hub [6]on our website.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ
This email, including any attachments, is confidential and may be legally
privileged (and neither is waived or lost by mistaken delivery). Please
notify us if you have received this email in error and promptly delete it
from your system. Any unauthorised use of this email is expressly
prohibited. Our liability in connection with this email (including due to
viruses in any attachments) is limited to re-supplying this email and its
attachments. We collect personal information to provide and market our
services and for other purposes - please refer to our privacy policy for
more information on how we collect and handle personal information.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official:Sensitive
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.minterellison.com/
3. http://www.linkedin.com/company/minter-e...
4. http://twitter.com/minterellison
5. https://www.minterellison.com/covid-19-i...
6. https://www.minterellison.com/articles/c...
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
Right to Know received a request from the Department today to consult with them in relation to this request.
We don't object to the release of any of the documents they asked us to review. We did ask that they remove a mobile phone number contained in one of the email chains.
While we have not objected to the release of the documents, it is ultimately up to the decision maker in the Department as to what documents they choose to release.