Dear IP Australia,

I request access to documents that contain references to the decision by IP Australia to refuse to accept Freedom of Information requests via email. This request is made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)

I specifically exclude documents that have been sent to members of the public in relation to their FOI requests.

I can confirm that the Right to Know email address is a valid email address for the purposes of s15(2)(c) of the FOI Act

Yours faithfully,

Ben Fairless

Dear IP Australia,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of IP Australia's handling of my FOI request 'Documents related to the removal of email for FOI requests'.

I request the internal review for the below reasons:

1 - In conversations with employees at IP Australia, employees have alluded to documents regarding the decision by IP Australia to refuse to accept FOI requests via email. This would include legal advice, that I would find difficult to beleive that the decision maker (Ms. Edlington) would be unaware of as the Chief Legal Officer.

2 - I would refer IP Australia to an email sent by the Director of Trade Marks & Designs Administration ("The Director") to [email address] on the 4th of March.

This email is a request to remove the name of a IP Australia employee (Daniel Rehwinkel) from a different Right to Know request, as Mr. Rehwinkel authored an email to another Right to Know user which referenced the decision by IP Australia to not accept requests via email.

Whilst the original email by Mr. Rehwinkel would be exempt, the email from The Director would be valid, as it discusses the decision and is not a request to a member of the publi8c regarding **their** FOI request.

In case you are not aware, Right to Know does not make requests, it simply allows requests to be made by users. If you were to say that Right to Know was making an FOI request, it would be like saying that iiNet is making requests when I email from my iiNet email address, or Gmail is making FOI requests when a request is sent from a Gmail email address.

3 - I made a phone call to IP Austraila to discuss IP Australia's obligations under the FOI act. I spoke with Mr. Rehwinkel who advised that he would need to seek further advice from senior employees within IP Australia. I find it hard to believe that there is not a single paper trail in relation to that phone call.

4 - To assume there is no records of an approved change to update IP Australia's website to reflect the use of eServices over email sounds ridiculous. Surely there is a change in the relevant IT Systems used by IP Australia?

5 - I find it hard to believe that documents are not held by the Office of Legal Counsel in relation to the change from accepting FOI requests via email. Whilst those documents may be exempt, their existance should still be acknowledged.

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,

Ben Fairless