Documents not available for download from your FOI log or reasoning
Posty made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Department of Agriculture and Water Resources,
It has been noticed, that in some occasions, there are documents on your Freedom Of Information Disclosure Log where you have put the most redundant text next to FOI disclosures—the equivalent of “if you would like access to these documents, please email/contact us for access”.
Any person reviewing the information on that site would of course be after the documents. It is puzzling that, on some occasions, you have made the documents available and others not. There has been a noted increase since 2016, and complete lack since 2017!
I believe this is not in the spirit of the FOI act section 11C, and thus I request—under the Freedom of Information Act 1982—copies of the following documents:
All documents as is (that is, redacted or unredacted) from all previously made decisions on your department's FOI log that are currently not available for download direct from the website.
My preferred method of delivery for this information is for it to be placed on your department's Freedom of Information disclosure log web page as per part A) of 11C of the FOI Act. Should this request be successful you can put a simple list of the documents that were made available from the request, or whatever is most expedient, on the log.
I apologise for my pessimism, but past FOI experiences have led me to believe this request may elicit a response similar to “this request would divert too many resources of your department to complete”. Should you be thinking this, you have nobody to blame but yourselves—your department made this metaphorical bed.
Should you be seriously considering a practical refusal, my alternative request is for any documents that your department holds relating to the decision to include text on your freedom of information disclosure log similar to "contact us for access to this document".
In addition I request the total of the number of times any member of the public has asked for access to each said non-website published successful for documents on the FOI disclosure log other than the original successful applicant.
I do accept there is a very remote possibility there is a “Good Reason” for these not being available, and I hope these are contained within the documents provided as I cannot foresee any.
In the interests of expediency, I am willing to consider Administrative Access to said documents, should the document be provided within 30 days ( plus any public holidays in-between) of the sending of this email. After this time - the FOI Act applies as normal in all instances and any requests for extension will be denied without a supplied very good reason.
Regards,
Posty
Thank you for your email. The Department of Agriculture and Water
Resources Canberra offices and some regional offices are closed for
business from 25 December 2018 to 2 January 2019. We will reply to your
email as soon as possible
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Dear Posty,
Please find attached the decision relating to your freedom of information
application.
Your FOI application also requests ‘all documents as is (that is, redacted
or unredacted) from all previously made decisions on your department’s FOI
log that are currently not available for download direct from the
website’.
The department publishes all decisions on the department’s disclosure log
in accordance with section 11C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act). Where documents have not been published, the department has included
the statement ‘To request access to the material contact the FOI Officer’
with a link to the department’s FOI email mailbox. This statement meets
the requirement set out in section 11C of the FOI Act.
The department can provide you with access to the documents you have
sought, however due to size of the documents they will have to be uploaded
to a disc or usb, and sent via post. Please provide us with a postal
address so that we can process this part of the request.
Kind regards,
FOI Officer
Information Law Team, Corporate and Dispute Resolution Branch
Office of the General Counsel, Assurance and Legal Division
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
18 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
GPO Box 858 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
------ IMPORTANT - This email and any attachments have been issued by the
Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. The
material transmitted is for the use of the intended recipient only and may
contain confidential, legally privileged, copyright or personal
information. You should not copy, use or disclose it without authorisation
from the Department. It is your responsibility to check any attachments
for viruses and defects before opening or forwarding them. If you are not
an intended recipient, please contact the sender of this email at once by
return email and then delete both messages. Unintended recipients must not
copy, use, disclose, rely on or publish this email or attachments. The
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is not liable for any loss
or damage resulting from unauthorised use or dissemination of, or any
reliance on, this email or attachments. If you have received this e-mail
as part of a valid mailing list and no longer want to receive a message
such as this one, advise the sender by return e-mail accordingly. This
notice should not be deleted or altered ------