Dear Transport for NSW (TfNSW),

Importance of access to Public Transport

The construction of the Sydney Light Rail line has impacted public transport availability along the route, both in terms of frequency & numbers of bus services.

One of the impacts that has been significant has been bus services between the Sydney CBD and University of NSW in Kensington.

The provision & access to efficient public transport for the most vulnerable in our community is an important part of the role of government. How well government makes enquires and plans to discharge this duty is a matter of great public interest.

Request

I therefore make an access application for the following Government Information:

a) Documents relating to assessments, observations or inspections made by TfNSW (either on a regularly scheduled or ad-hoc basis) of public transport passenger numbers, journey times and waiting times on bus services stopping at Central Station and UNSW (and vice-versa), for the period 1 Jan 2016 to 1 April 2017; and

b) Documents produced by TfNSW or commissioned by TfNSW relating to mitigation measures put into place to correct any negative impacts to public transport passenger numbers, journey times and waiting times on bus services stopping at Central Station and UNSW, for the period 1 Jan 2016 to 1 April 2017.

To assist you with your processing of your response, I am interested primarily in the following points, which I consider to be of significant public interest:

1) what investigation and monitoring, if any, is TfNSW undertaking of the impacts of the Light Rail construction is having on the large number of students who rely on public transport to get from all around Sydney to UNSW, via Central Station; and

2) what mitigation measures, if any, TfNSW has put into place to reduce the disruption, congestion & delays experienced by public transport users on bus routes between Central Station and UNSW.

If this can be answered as informal request, please do so.

Otherwise, please proceed with this as a formal Access Application request under the NSW Freedom of Information principles & framework, i.e. the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 & other associated guidelines and regulations.

Request for waiver of Application Charge

I formally request for a full waiver, and or discount on the application charge for this Access Application on the grounds of financial hardship.

I detail my reasons below.

I have a fixed income and the discretionary component of my income that is allocated to food each week is $124. The charges imposed, being $30, represent some 24% of my weekly food budget.

I submit to TfNSW that the payment of the Charge of $30, or part of it, would cause significant financial hardship to me as the amount of $30 represents in excess of 1 and a half days of my weekly food budget. In choosing to progress my GI(PA) FOI request, I would have to go without purchasing food for more than 1 day, or forgo other discretionary items of spending to take the place of sustenance

Yours faithfully,

Richard Smith

Dear Information, Corporate Policy and Investigations,

Ref: TRA-000417

Thank you for your 12th April acknowledgement of my Access Application for Government Information.

In regards to the two issues raised in your acknowledgement, I address each in turn below.

Application Fee
I authorise Transport for NSW to debit my credit card to enable the application fee of $30 to be paid.

My credit card details are:
Mastercard
Credit Card Number: [Credit Card Information Removed]
Card Holder: Prepaid Cardholder
Expiry: 09/18
CCV: [CVV REMOVED]
Debit Amount: $30

Postal Address
I also advise that my postal address is:
4 High Street
Kensington NSW
2052

I request that my matter is handled through this email address as postal deliveries are unreliable and some of my postal mail has been lost in transit on its way to me.

I trust this addresses the two issues raised in your acknowledgement letter and the processing of my Access Request can continue.

I look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Information, Corporate Policy and Investigations,

Thank you for your reply of 19th April 2017.

I will address your comments in detail below.

Conditions not to be imposed by agencies on release of information
As you would be aware, the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 lists as one of its objectives:

"In order to maintain and advance a system of responsible and representative democratic Government that is open, accountable, fair and effective, the object of this Act is to open government information to the public by:

(a) authorising and encouraging the proactive public release of government information by agencies, and

(b) giving members of the public an enforceable right to access government information, and

...

that the discretions conferred by this Act be exercised, as far as possible, so as to facilitate and encourage, promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost, access to government information".

The GIPA Act does not specifically require a signature authorisation in order for an Access Application to be made and considered valid. Also section 73 of the Act specifically provides that "An agency is not entitled to impose any conditions on the use or disclosure of information".

The request for a signature is an additional administrative step added to the process by TfNSW, which has the effect of imposing a condition to disclosure of information over and above the requirements of the GIPA Act. This contravenes section 73 of the Act and has the effect of frustrating the objectives of the GIPA Act in terms of my Access Application.

Use of Prepaid Credit Card
The debit of an amount from a credit card does not technically or practically require a signature authorisation, as is common in transactions both through the internet or over the phone by both government and commercial entities.

The credit card I have provided to Transport for NSW from which to debit the $30 Application Fee is a Prepaid Credit Card as sold by both Woolworths or Coles. I am not the named account holder, as is illustrated by the account holder field being populated by "Prepaid Cardholder" in my previous correspondence.

Therefore, with the credit card not being a personal credit card account, personally signing a credit card authorisation is both nonsensical and a meaningless gesture. I have already given TfNSW written authority to debit the credit card in both my previous correspondence of 18th April and in this email.

Accordingly, please debit the credit card using the details I have previously provided to TfNSW and continue to process my Government Information Access Application in the spirit of the Act.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Ms Thalong,

Thank you for your response of 17th May requesting an extension of time for the processing of my request for Government Information.

I do not object to the extension of time and therefore agree to the new due date of 1st June 2017.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Ms Thalong,

Thank you for your response of 30 May 2017.

I shall address the points raised in your email in turn below.

1. Request to narrow scope of Government Information

I have considered the issue raised by TfNSW in so far as there could be a large number of documents that fall into the scope of my initial request for Government Information.

I have weighed the public interest value in understanding the quantum of assessment, observation & measurement, if any, of the passenger traffic I have asked for with the disproportionate diversion of TfNSW staff to search for documents that should be readily at hand of the part of TfNSW that has oversight of the Light Rail Project.

Accordingly, I do not object to narrowing the scope of my GIPA Act request by amending the request to be for:

"a) Documents being either Draft Final Reports or Final Reports produced by TfNSW or commissioned by TfNSW describing public transport passenger numbers, journey times and waiting times on bus services stopping at Central Station and UNSW (and vice-versa), for the period 1 Jan 2016 to 1 April 2017; and

b) Documents being either Draft Final Reports or Final Reports produced by TfNSW or commissioned by TfNSW relating to mitigation measures put into place to correct any negative impacts to public transport passenger numbers, journey times and waiting times on bus services stopping at Central Station and UNSW, for the period 1 Jan 2016 to 1 April 2017."

2. Request for an additional extension of time

I agree to an extension of time to the 15 June 2017. I would note, however that TfNSW has already requested a previous extension and has, by now, exceeded the time contemplated in the Act for the release of Government Information.

Notwithstanding this fact, in light of the public benefit of having this Government Information released, I will continue to wait until the new deadline of 15th June as requested by TfNSW.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Ms Thalong,

Thank you for your email.

I do not object to an extension of time for my request for Government Information being agreed to run until the 27 June 2017.

I note that I will be overseas from next week until mid July and may not have regular access to email until then.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Mr Kosh,

Re: GIPA Request TRA 000417

Thank you for your letter of 28 June 2017.

I have now returned home from overseas. Apologies that I have not replied to your correspondence, however there are some places in the world where the internet has not reached in a reliable nor affordable manner. Perhaps it is one of the reasons that the country I was visiting chooses to measure its progress in Gross National Happiness, not GDP.

I have considered the issues you have raised in your letter of 28 June 2017 and I will address each in turn below.

Deemed Refusal
I have considered your clarification that my request has been considered to have been refused.

Considering the reduction in scope that I had agreed to in my letter of 7 June 2017 and the suggestion that this scope reduction would allow a forthcoming of information, I will take you up on your offer to continue to process my application and make a late decision.

Refund of GIPA Application Fee
With regards to the refund of the application fee, please arrange for my refund of $30 to be paid via a cheque as per the following details:

Cheque Payee: OpenAustralia Foundation Limited

Post to:
Level 15
461 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

I look forward to hearing from you in regards to your continuing processing of my request and the resultant TfNSW "late decision".

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Wayne,

Thank you for your reply.

I would request that you also provide a copy of the decision via email to this address, in addition to the post as per your email today.

As previously communicated to TfNSW in my letter of 18 April 2017, I request that my matter is handled through this email address as postal deliveries are unreliable and some of my postal mail has been lost in transit on its way to me.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Wayne,

Thanks for your reply.

Considering the size of the document/s you are transmitting, I would request that you use https://expirebox.com to upload a copy of the released information & provide me via email with the resultant link to download the decision & documents.

It allows 200MB upload gratis without any requirements for creating an account & deletes the information after two days.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith

Dear Ms Kocanovski,

Thank you for you recent email.

As I had mentioned in my 18 April 2017 letter to TfNSW, postal deliveries had been problematic for me and some of my postal mail has been lost in transit on its way to me.

Accordingly I request that you redirect the decision to me at:

Attn: Richard Smith
Tharunka
PO Box 173
Kingsford NSW 2032

I would also request that TfNSW uploads a digital version of the decision to www.righttoknow.org.au.

TfNSW can do this by following the link:

https://www.righttoknow.org.au/upload/re...

At the bottom of the page is a Link for Transport for NSW to upload a response.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith