Department’s Executive Management Board Minutes
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
I seek copy of all the DVA Executive Management Board Minutes for FY16/17.
Yours faithfully,
Julie
Dear Julie,
Acknowledgement of FOI Request – FOI 24297
I refer to your request to access information held by our Department under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). The Department received
your request on 31 August 2018. In accordance with section 15(5)(b) of the
FOI Act, the Department has 30 days to process your request. As such, a
decision on your request is due by 1 October 2018.
If you have any questions about your FOI matter, please contact us using
the following details:
Post: Legal Services & Assurance, Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601
Facsimile: (02) 6289 6337
Email: [1][email address]
In all communications please quote reference FOI 24297.
Kind Regards,
Information Law | Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998 Canberra ACT 2601
E: [2][email address]
[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0
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Good evening Julie,
FOI 24297 Decision and Statement of Reasons
I refer to your FOI request received by the Department on 31 August 2018. Please find attached the decision in respond to your request.
Kind Regards,
Information Law Team
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
E: [email address] | W: www.dva.gov.au
-----Original Message-----
From: Julie [mailto:[FOI #4766 email]]
Sent: Friday, 31 August 2018 8:58 PM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Department’s Executive Management Board Minutes [TO BE CLASSIFIED]
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
I seek copy of all the DVA Executive Management Board Minutes for FY16/17.
Yours faithfully,
Julie
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #4766 email]
Is [DVA request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests to Department of Veterans' Affairs? If so, please contact us using this form:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
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please contact the sender and delete all copies of this email.
3. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and are not
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4. Electronic addresses published in this email are not conspicuous publications and DVA does not consent to the receipt of commercial electronic messages.
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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
Good morning.
Please see to the following.
Regards.
Linda Liu
Assistant Information Access Officer
National Information Access Processing Team (NIAPT)
Department of Veterans' Affairs
Tel : (02) 9213 7629 Fax: (02) 9213 7400
-----Original Message-----
From: Julie [mailto:[FOI #4766 email]]
Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2018 11:08 PM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Department’s Executive Management Board Minutes [TO BE CLASSIFIED]
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #4766 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
______________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT
1. Before opening any attachments, please check for viruses.
2. This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain confidential information
for the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient,
please contact the sender and delete all copies of this email.
3. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and are not
a statement of Australian Government Policy unless otherwise stated.
4. Electronic addresses published in this email are not conspicuous publications and DVA does not consent to the receipt of commercial electronic messages.
5. To unsubscribe from emails from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) please go to
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6. Finally, please do not remove this notice.
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
Good afternoon Julie,
Please find attached a decision on your request for an Internal Review of
FOI 24297. We apologise for the delay in issuing this decision to you and
any inconvenience it may have caused.
Kind Regards,
Information Law Section | Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Legal Assurance and Governance Division
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
E: [1][email address] | W: [2]www.dva.gov.au
[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0
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IMPORTANT
1. Before opening any attachments, please check for viruses.
2. This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain confidential
information
for the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient,
please contact the sender and delete all copies of this email.
3. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and are not
a statement of Australian Government Policy unless otherwise stated.
4. Electronic addresses published in this email are not conspicuous
publications and DVA does not consent to the receipt of commercial
electronic messages.
5. To unsubscribe from emails from the Department of Veterans' Affairs
(DVA) please go to
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6. Finally, please do not remove this notice.
References
Visible links
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Good afternoon Carl,
Thank you for the below notification. As flagged last week with the OAIC,
we will require more time to respond to new IC notifications. We would
appreciate further time to 6 May 2019 to provide a response.
Grateful for your reply and consideration.
Kind Regards,
Leia (Position Number 62210022)
Information Law Section | Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Legal Assurance and Governance Division
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
E: [1][email address] | W: [2]www.dva.gov.au
[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0
From: FOIDR [[4]mailto:[email address]]
Sent: Monday, 1 April 2019 1:42 PM
To: INFORMATION.ACCESS <[5][email address]>
Subject: MR19/00025 - Notice of IC review and request for documents
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Our reference: MR19/00025
Your reference: FOI 24297
FOI Contact Officer
Department of Veterans' Affairs
By email: [6][email address]
Notice of IC review and request for documents
Dear FOI Contact Officer
Please find a letter about Julie’s application for IC review attached.
Yours sincerely
[7][IMG] Carl English | Acting Review
Adviser (Legal)
Freedom of Information Dispute
Resolution
Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[8]oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9745 |
[9][email address]
[10][IMG] | [11][IMG] | [12][IMG] |
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