Documents not available for download from your FOI disclosure log / reasoning
Posty made this Freedom of Information request to Attorney-General's Department as part of a batch sent to 6 authorities
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear FOI Department,
It has been noticed 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. This lack of access displays complete disregard of 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 non-website published successful 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 to the Attorney-General’s Department’s Freedom of
Information Unit.
Please note that this office is closed from the afternoon of Monday 24
December 2018 and will re-open on Wednesday 2 January 2019. We will
respond to your email in the new year.
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 Posty
I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) for access to:
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 total of the number of times any member of the public has asked for
access to each non-website published successful documents on the FOI
disclosure log other than the original successful applicant.
If you disagree with this interpretation of your request, please let me
know in writing as soon as possible.
The department received your request on 1 January 2019 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 insert 31
January 2019. However, the period of 30 days may be extended if the
department needs to consult third parties or for other reasons. We will
advise you if this happens.
Where the documents within the scope of an FOI request include the
personal information of junior officers of the department or other
government agencies, the department’s practice is to not disclose that
information (eg, names, contact details). The names and contact details
of senior officers will generally be disclosed.
If you have any questions, please contact Jon by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email [AGD request email].
Kind regards, Jon
Assistant Director
Freedom of Information and Parliamentary Section
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666 | E: [1][AGD request email]
Dear Jon,
Your interpretation of the request is 99% correct.
If all documents that are not available for download currently - ARE made available for download - the second part of the request (how many people have asked for the documents) is not required to be fulfilled.
I wish to impose the least amount of work on this department as possible for the greatest advantage to the public open access.
Yours sincerely,
Posty
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Posty
Please find attached correspondence about your FOI request FOI19/009.
Kind regards, Jon
Assistant Director
Freedom of Information and Parliamentary Section
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666 | E: [1][AGD request email]
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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References
Visible links
1. mailto:[AGD request email]
Dear Katrina,
On Friday I called Jon as you encouraged to discuss access to the documents - when we finally got in contact with each other the conversation was not very fruitful.
Jon seemed exceedingly focussed on attempting to narrow the request down to specific documents - thinking further after the conversation - I am interested in the principle of access itself so therefore no document is of any further import than any other. they are all equal importance.
However - given your pending decision to refuse the request as it being essentially "too much work" to provide access to the documents that you were doing up until 2013 (for example: still here: https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtectio...
stopped: https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtectio...)
In the interests of greater public access to at least the most recent I will narrow the scope of the request down from:
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.
to:
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 for the years 2018 and 2019.
please note that I still am requesting delivery of these documents in the format of being downloadable from your disclosure log.
Yours sincerely,
Posty
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Posty
Thank you for your email revising the scope of your request to be for:
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 for the years 2018 and
2019.
The department considers that your revised request adequately addresses
the practical refusal grounds outlined above and will recommence
processing it. Your request was suspended on day 27 and resumes today.
I request that you consent to an extension of 30 days under section 15AA
of the FOI Act to enable the department to complete the processing of your
request. The department is seeking this extension because there are still
more than 200 documents that fall within the scope of your revised
request. You can provide your consent by return email.
More information about extensions is available on the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner’s Website (FOI fact sheet 16: Freedom
of information – Extensions of time can be accessed here:
[1]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...).
I also request that you provide a name and mailing address for CD delivery
of the documents.
If you have any questions, please contact Julia by telephone on (02) 6141
6666 or by email [2][AGD request email].
Kind regards
Julia
FOI Case Officer
Freedom of Information and Parliamentary | Strategy and Governance Branch
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666| E: [3][AGD request email]
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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Posty
Please find attached correspondence about your FOI request FOI19/009.
Kind regards
Julia
FOI Case Officer
Freedom of Information and Parliamentary Section
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666 | E: [1][AGD request email]
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].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[AGD request email]
Julia,
Not that there is much point in refusing your request for an extension of 30 days as per previous correspondence I am not going to be kicking up more fuss in the deadline matter than necessary. what you previously requested is granted.
Mailing of physical media and further wasting of government physical resources is not required as I have *repeatedly* pointed out to you, please upload them directly to the righttoknow.org.au website via the information provided at the bottom of this email.
If you have trouble doing this, please contact your internal IT helpdesk for any issues that you may encounter.
Should this prove to be difficult I am happy to discuss any issues you may encounter through here.
there are many much more taxpayer friendly digital delivery options.
Regards,
Posty
Julia,
I apologise I haven't pointed the digital method out to you before - I've got a lot of correspondence going on at the moment.
Regards,
posty
Dear Posty
Thank you for your emails dated 21 February 2019.
Regarding your request for the documents to be uploaded directly to
righttoknow.org.au, this would interfere unreasonably with the operations
of the agency under s20(3) of the FOI Act.
If the giving of access in the form requested by the applicant:
(a) would interfere unreasonably with the operations
of the agency, or the performance by the Minister of his or her functions,
as the case may be;
(b) would be detrimental to the preservation of the
document or, having regard to the physical nature of the document, would
not be appropriate; or
(c) would, but for this Act, involve an infringement
of copyright (other than copyright owned by the Commonwealth, an agency or
a State) subsisting in matter contained in the document, being matter that
does not relate to the affairs of an agency or of a Department of State;
access in that form may be refused and access given in another form.
It would take approximately 10 hours, or over one working day, to
meaningfully name, organise and upload 236 documents to the
righttoknow.org.au website. Transferring the documents to a CD would take
substantially less time. For this reason, we consider it a better use of
departmental resources to provide the documents to you on CD.
The department is investigating secure file sharing capabilities to
facilitate future access to documents however this option is currently not
available for immediate use.
Please provide a mailing address at your earliest convenience.
Kind regards
Joanna
Assistant Director
Freedom of Information and Parliamentary | Strategy and Governance Branch
Attorney-General’s Department
T: 02 6141 6666 | E: [1][AGD request email]
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JS left an annotation ()
Posty
Up to August 2013 the Dept published documents in its disclosure log. Around the time of the change in Government in Sept 2013 the Department adopted the current system. See https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/a...
Previously the department has generally made the documents available for downloading from the departmental website. [ Although this has the advantage of making the documents immediately available, it has the disadvantage of reducing the overall accessibility rating of the AGD website. This is because documents are produced in PDF format for redaction and release and are not available in any alternative format. The PDF format is not very accessible, particularly where documents have been scanned from original hard copies, and accessibility standards require documents to be provided in an alternative format. ]
The text within [ ] was redacted in a recent release of the same document ; see https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/d...
The current disclosure log contains the following:
The Attorney-General's Department is committed to upholding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Work is underway across the Australian Government to achieve compliance in line with the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy.
Accessible alternative formats to Adobe Acrobat documents or .pdf files are currently unavailable. …….
Not much progress since 2013 it seems …
Dear Joanna,
I apologise for the tardiness of my reply.
I had not replied to this as I have been engaged.
I’d very much still like the documents.
I can’t really tell you my address through this public medium of right to know.
I assure you do not have to quote “meaningfully name them or organise them” If you chuck them all in a big zip file and upload it here with what you were going to burn that’s fine too.
If you INSIST on wasting physical resources and mailing it to me - please email me at hey@posty.online where I can tell you my address.
I will organise that the entirety is either uploaded here or elsewhere with whatever you provide once received.
Alternatively I can call you on your phone number but I am aware that it’s likely easier for everyone to just action this at your convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Posty
Posty left an annotation ()
Julia,
Not that there is much point in refusing your request for an extension of 30 days as per previous correspondence I am not going to be kicking up more fuss in the deadline matter than necessary. what you previously requested is granted.
Mailing of physical media and further wasting of government physical resources is not required as I have *repeatedly* pointed out to you, please upload them directly to the righttoknow.org.au website via the information provided at the bottom of this email.
If you have trouble doing this, please contact your internal IT helpdesk for any issues that you may encounter.
Should this prove to be difficult I am happy to discuss any issues you may encounter through here.
there are many much more taxpayer friendly digital delivery options.
Regards,
Posty