Documents quantifying the magnitude of Mr. Bob Day AO's debt the Commonwealth has waived
Dear Special Minister of State,
On May 25 2017, you published a statement describing your decision to waive debt owed to the Commonwealth by Mr. Bob Day, AO, following his period of unlawfully sitting as a Senator.
Your statement enumerated debts "owed for salaries, allowances, superannuation and staff payments."
(ref: https://twitter.com/political_alert/stat...)
Please disclose any documents which quantify debts in each of those four categories, debts in any other categories which you have waived but not identified in your published statement, and total debt.
Since Mr. Day was not qualified to be elected to the Senate and was incapable of sitting as a Senator from 26 February 2016, in my opinion waiving these debts qualifies as public expenditure for no lawful purpose. Due the the obvious public interest arising from such well-considered and deliberate Government waste, I request waiver of any fees associated with this Freedom of Information application.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Newton
Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information Team at the
Department of Finance. An officer will respond to your email shortly. In
the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact
the FOI Team on (02) 6215 1783.
Regards,
FOI Officer, Legal Services Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [1][Special Minister of State request email]
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
References
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1. mailto:[Special Minister of State request email]
Thank you for your email, which has been forwarded to the Department’s FOI
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Kind regards
FOI Coordinator
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
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________________________________
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Newton
Freedom of Information Request – FOI 17/79
Thank you for your email, dated 25 May 2017, to the Special Minister of
State, requesting access to the following under the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (FOI Act).
Dear Special Minister of State,
On May 25 2017, you published a statement describing your decision to
waive debt owed to the Commonwealth by Mr. Bob Day, AO, following his
period of unlawfully sitting as a Senator.
Your statement enumerated debts "owed for salaries, allowances,
superannuation and staff payments."
(ref: [1]https://twitter.com/political_alert/stat...).
Please disclose any documents which quantify debts in each of those four
categories, debts in any other categories which you have waived but not
identified in your published statement, and total debt.
Since Mr. Day was not qualified to be elected to the Senate and was
incapable of sitting as a Senator from 26 February 2016, in my opinion
waiving these debts qualifies as public expenditure for no lawful purpose.
Due the the obvious public interest arising from such well-considered and
deliberate Government waste, I request waiver of any fees associated with
this Freedom of Information application.
We note that while your request is addressed to the Special Minister of
State, it was sent to Finance’s nominated FOI email address. As the
subject matter of the requested documents is more closely connected with
the functions of Finance (and in fact are in Finance’s possession) the
Special Minister of State’s Office (the Office) has confirmed that Finance
is better placed to process your request. As such, the Office has
transferred your request, in full, to Finance under section 16 of the FOI
Act.
Finance will process your request and notify you of a decision on access
to relevant documents in due course.
Please direct all future enquires regarding the above request to
[2][Special Minister of State request email].
Kind regards
FOI Officer
[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D20F6A.7457D930
FOI Officer, Legal Services Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [4][Special Minister of State request email]
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
UNCLASSIFIED
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
References
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1. https://twitter.com/political_alert/stat...
2. mailto:[Special Minister of State request email]
4. mailto:[Special Minister of State request email]
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Newton,
Freedom of Information Requests
Thank you for your emails to the Special Minister of State and the
Department of Finance (Finance) requesting access to certain documents
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). On 30 May 2017, you
were advised that the FOI request 17/79 had been transferred to Finance.
The purpose of this email is to streamline the processing of your related
FOI requests, in particular:
Original Request (FOI 17/79)
… Please disclose any documents which quantify debts in each of those four
categories, debts in any other categories which you have waived but not
identified in your published statement, and total debt …
Subsequent Request (FOI 17/82)
1. The "Application for a Waiver of Debt owed to the Government" form
submitted by Mr. Day, or any other correspondence from Mr. Day or his
agents which serve the purpose of an application for waiver of debt,
2. The report of the advisory committee which considered the
appropriateness of the Minister's authorisation authorisation for debt
waiver, pursuant to sections 24(2) and 24(3) of the Public Governance,
Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 (Federal Register of Legislation
F2017L00203),
3. The names and positions held of the advisory committee's members,
4. Submissions from affected non-corporate Commonwealth Entities (NCEs) to
the advisory committee established in (2) above, and/or provided to Mr.
Day,
5. Minutes, notes, or other annotations which show that the relevant
Minister received the advisory committee's report and considered it,
6. Records which indicate the amount of time elapsed between the
application in (1) above and the Minister's decision; and
7. Notification from the decision maker to Mr. Day …
Way Forward
It appears that the documents you are seeking under FOI 17/79 are
substantially the same as the documents requested under FOI 17/82 and can
be processed together. On that basis, please confirm that you are happy to
withdraw FOI 17/79.
If you have any questions, my preference is to discuss by phone. Please do
not hesitate to contact the FOI Team on the details below.
Kind regards,
FOI Officer
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D20F6A.7457D930
FOI Officer, Legal and Assurance Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [2][Special Minister of State request email]
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
UNCLASSIFIED
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[Special Minister of State request email]
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Newton,
Freedom of Information Requests
Thank you for your emails to the Special Minister of State and the
Department of Finance (Finance) requesting access to certain documents
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). On 30 May 2017, you
were advised that the FOI request 17/79 had been transferred to Finance.
The purpose of this email is to streamline the processing of your related
FOI requests, in particular:
Original Request (FOI 17/79)
… Please disclose any documents which quantify debts in each of those four
categories, debts in any other categories which you have waived but not
identified in your published statement, and total debt …
Subsequent Request (FOI 17/82)
1. The "Application for a Waiver of Debt owed to the Government" form
submitted by Mr. Day, or any other correspondence from Mr. Day or his
agents which serve the purpose of an application for waiver of debt,
2. The report of the advisory committee which considered the
appropriateness of the Minister's authorisation authorisation for debt
waiver, pursuant to sections 24(2) and 24(3) of the Public Governance,
Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 (Federal Register of Legislation
F2017L00203),
3. The names and positions held of the advisory committee's members,
4. Submissions from affected non-corporate Commonwealth Entities (NCEs) to
the advisory committee established in (2) above, and/or provided to Mr.
Day,
5. Minutes, notes, or other annotations which show that the relevant
Minister received the advisory committee's report and considered it,
6. Records which indicate the amount of time elapsed between the
application in (1) above and the Minister's decision; and
7. Notification from the decision maker to Mr. Day …
Way Forward
It appears that the documents you are seeking under FOI 17/79 are
substantially the same as the documents requested under FOI 17/82 and can
be processed together. On that basis, please confirm that you are happy to
withdraw FOI 17/79.
If you have any questions, my preference is to discuss by phone. Please do
not hesitate to contact the FOI Team on the details below.
Kind regards,
FOI Officer
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D20F6A.7457D930
FOI Officer, Legal and Assurance Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [2][Special Minister of State request email]
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
UNCLASSIFIED
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[Special Minister of State request email]
Mark Newton left an annotation ()
I'm going to close this one in due course, because it's been merged with https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/d...
There isn't a "merged with other request" category of to explain why it's being closed, so I'll leave this one open until the other one is answered, and close them both off at the same time with an indication of whether they had the information or not.