Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that
your email has been received by the Attorney-General's Department's FOI
Coordinator.

 

If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in
writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to
access. The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.

 

Kind regards,

 

Attorney-General's Department FOI Team

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Privacy Collection Notice

When you make a request for documents or an inquiry about privacy matters,
the Attorney-General’s Department will only collect your personal
information where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to,
our functions under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 or the Privacy Act
1988. We may collect your name, email address and telephone number so that
we can contact you about your request under the Freedom of Information Act
for access to documents or access to, or correction of, personal
information; or a complaint you have made or your request for access to,
or correction of, personal information under the Privacy Act. If your
request concerns your personal information, we will collect the minimum
amount of evidence necessary to verify your identity. The handling of your
personal information is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 and our privacy
policy is available at http://www.ag.gov.au/Pages/Privacystatem....
If you have an enquiry or complaint about your privacy, please contact the
Privacy Contact Officer on 02 6141 2660 or via e-mail [email address].

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UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Slattery,

 

I refer to your email of yesterday, 30 March 2016, seeking information
about an unidentified defendant's name, address and the charge he pleaded
guilty to. In the subject line of that email, you noted that you were
making a Freedom of Information request. Your request however, does not
fulfil the requirements under section 15 of the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Commonwealth) (‘FOI Act’) and is therefore not a valid freedom of
information request. I will outline below why it is invalid, and explain
what you need to do in order to make a valid request.

 

Requirements for a valid request

Section 15 of the sets out the requirements for a valid freedom of
information request. Section 15(2) states that:

(2) The request must:

                (a)          be in writing; and

                (aa)       state that the request is an application for
the purposes of this Act; and

                (b)          provide such information concerning the
document as is reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the
agency, or the Minister, to identify it; and

                (c)           give details of how notices under this Act
may be sent to the applicant.

 

Where the request should be sent

Under the FOI Act, you have a right to make an FOI request to the
Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, and the department must give
you access to any documents in the department’s possession (subject to any
applicable exemptions). If the department does not possess the documents
you are seeking, we will not be able to give them to you .

 

If you are seeking information about criminal offences an individual was
charged with (and any further detail about that defendant or the
offending), you may like to consider making a request for that information
to the relevant State or Territory police service. For example, if the
defendant was charged in Sydney or Newcastle, you could make a request to
the New South Wales police service for that information. The Commonwealth
FOI Act does not apply to State or Territory government agencies but each
Australian State and Territory has legislation equivalent to the FOI Act. 
Information about other FOI jurisdictions can be found online at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor... .

 

Alternatively, you could also attend the relevant Court Registry and seek
to view the court file corresponding to this matter. There may be charges
if you wish to copy the court file and Court staff will be able to advise
you further.

 

Further information required

If you still wish to make a freedom of information request to the
Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, you will need to satisfy the
requirements in section 15 of the FOI Act, by providing more information
in writing, to enable us to locate the document (or documents) that you
are seeking.  You have not provided enough information in your email to
enable an officer of this department to be able to search for and identify
the document or documents that you want. The details you provided - the
name of the charging officer, the ‘event number’ and a date – are not
enough.

 

If you do not wish to make a freedom of information request to this
department, we do not require you to do anything further. I will take this
matter to be closed, unless further correspondence is received from you.

 

If you have any questions about this matter, you can send any further
queries to the [AGD request email] email address, or you can call the Freedom of
Information team on (02) 6141 6666.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Siobhan | FOI Case Manager

Freedom of Information and Privacy Section | Strategy and Delivery
Division

Australian Government Attorney-General's Department | 3 - 5 National
Circuit, Barton ACT 2600
T: +61 (2) 6141 6666  E: [1][AGD request email]

 

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