Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,

I seek copy of all the DVA Executive Management Board Minutes for FY16/17.

Yours faithfully,

Julie

Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Veterans' Affairs's handling of my FOI request 'Department’s Executive Management Board Minutes'.

The delegate refused all access under ss 47C & 47E(d) of the Act, citing any release would contrary to the public interest, have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of DVA, and any release would substantially disclose deliberative matter that would be misunderstood by members of the public that would again have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations of DVA.

Exempting all the contents of the documents in scope, including mundane things like attendees, agenda item titles, and decisions made (and the like), necessitates a very high evidentiary bar to be met, which on the evidence before me, is not satisfied.

The reasoning given is essentially generic template text with almost no specificity, and is perfunctory and opaque. It draws a very long bow, despite being very diffuse and non-specific.

While it may be possible, for example, that the meetings of the Board involved possible lengthy deliberative discussions, Minutes are not transcripts and it is not the convention for them to record in minutia discussions, but rather to record decisions and outcomes reached, and tasks and activities assigned - this is not deliberative material.

It is possible, but not shown by DVA, that some parts within agenda item topics may be potentially within scope of an exemption ground, but to then extend that to cover all the minutes in totality is untenable.

This is especially the case given that I understand these Minutes are circulated beyond just the Board members, and are not subject to the document security/sensitivity classifications that should apply if the claimed prejudice effects were likely.

I also note that there appears to be a culture of hostile resistance to the lawful access to documents via FOI from DVA, and that this culture appears to be a factor in this decision.

I therefore seek Internal Review of the decision of the delegate, for being too heavy handed and not in line with the objects and aims and purposes of the FOI Act, which is to exempt only where necessary and to always seek to release something, even if part of a document is genuinely exempt.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

Julie

To INFORMATION.ACCESS,

The deadline for the internal review decision has passed, for a few weeks now, without any decision notice having being provided by the Department.

This is really inappropriate and just unprofessional - especially since the due date would have been flagged by LEX (your FOI management system).

This deemed affirmation does not relieve the DVA of the responsibility to give a proper decision notice.

Sincerely,

Julie

As the Department of Veterans‘ Affairs has repeatedly failed to respond, following its failure to provide an Internal Review decision, I have had no choice but to refer this unethical behaviour to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

I would highlight the unprofessional bad faith behaviour by Veterans’ Affairs, in repeatiedly forcing decisions to deemed status, then continuing to ignore the Department’s obligation to provide a decision notice.

Julie