OFFICIAL

FOI/2022/097

Dear Trav S

Thank you for your email dated 25 March 2022, received by the Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), in which you made a
request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in the
following terms:

…

Last year Mr John Reid served me with a notice of intent to consider a
vexatious declaration with the Information Commissioner.  I asked him to
do so.  Documents obtained via FOI reveal significant maladministration in
the administration of the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal.  Public
interest requires scrutiny, discussion, comment and review of the
government’s activities in this case.

Please provide a copy of the correspondence between Mr Reid and Mr Peter
Rush relating to this vexatious declaration matter.  Please include mobile
phone text messages. 

…

Timeframe for receiving your decision

We received your request on 25 March 2022 and the 30 day statutory period
for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You
should therefore expect a decision from us by 26 April 2022. The period of
30 days may be extended in certain circumstances under the FOI Act. We
will write to you regarding any extension of time that may relate to your
request.

Personal information

The documents falling within the scope of your request above may contain
personal information, the Department will assess the release of this
information in accordance with the conditional exemption of s 47F in the
FOI Act, where personal information may be conditionally exempt from
release. The Department will also consider the FOI Guidelines and in
particular that release to the public site of Right to Know is a release
to a wider audience [3.36 Part 3 of the FOI Guidelines].

If you think that you might wish to receive access to your own personal
information within documents subject to an FOI request but do not wish for
that information to be conditionally exempt or become public, please
contact us at [1][DPMC request email] to provide an alternate address for the
delivery of the access decisions.

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details

For documents that fall within scope of the request, it is the
Department’s policy to withhold:

o any person’s signature;
o the names and contact details of Australian Public Service officers
not in the Senior Executive Service (SES);
o the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers;

·         the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level
below Chief of Staff.

The names and other details of SES officers will not be withheld unless
there is some reason for that information to be exempt from release. If
you require signatures, the names and contact details of non-SES officers
or Ministerial staff below the level of Chief of Staff, or the mobile or
direct numbers of SES officers please let us know at [2][DPMC request email] so
the decision-maker may consider; otherwise we will take it that you agree
to that information being excluded from the scope of your request (that
is, the information will be treated as irrelevant and redacted from any
documents for release).

Further information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
[3]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor....

Yours sincerely

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country, One National Circuit  Barton  ACT  2600  |  PO Box
6500  CANBERRA  ACT  2600
e. [4][email address]  w. [5]pmc.gov.au

[6]cid:image001.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0[7]cid:image002.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0

[8]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
4. mailto:[email address]
5. https://www.pmc.gov.au/
6. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
7. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...

OFFICIAL

FOI/2022/097

Good morning Trav S

We refer your request of 25 March 2022 for access to documents held by the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982.

The current due date for a decision on this request is 26 April 2022.
Regrettably, the Department is not currently in a position to finalise the
decision by this date. Accordingly, we are seeking your agreement to a
30-day extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act. We will
endeavour to notify you of the decision prior to this extended date if
possible.

If you agree to this request for a 30 day extension of time, we ask that
you confirm this in writing via return email by COB on 11 April 2022.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country, One National Circuit  Barton  ACT  2600  |  PO Box
6500  CANBERRA  ACT  2600
e. [1][email address]  w. [2]pmc.gov.au

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0[4]cid:image002.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0

[5]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/
3. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...

Dear Applicant and FOI Contact Officer,

Please see attached decision regarding the Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet’s application for an extension of time to process FOI
request FOI/2022/097.

Kind regards,

[1][IMG]   Eoin McMahon  |  Review Adviser

Investigations and Compliance

Freedom of Information
Regulatory Group

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [2]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9284 9716  | 
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/updates/sign-up/

hide quoted sections

OFFICIAL

FOI/2022/097

Dear Trav S

Please find attached the decision regarding your request under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982.

Yours sincerely

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country | One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box
6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600
e. [1][email address]  w. [2]pmc.gov.au

[3]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/