Dear Australian Postal Corporation,

In 2015 the Commonwealth Attorney-General, under Freedom of Information, released a list of Government Agencies, Departments and Authorities that had applied for ongoing access to Telecommunication Data of Australians.

The Australian Postal Corporation was present in the two lists released under the FOI release, having applied for access to both historical Telecommunications Data and ongoing Telecommunications Data of Australians.

I therefore request the following Government Information:

a) Documents relating to the Australian Postal Corporation's consideration and decision to apply for ongoing access to Telecommunications Data as per the TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION AND ACCESS) ACT 1979;

b) The date of each Application made by Australian Postal Corporation for access to Telecommunications Data under the TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION AND ACCESS) ACT 1979;

c) Documents relating to how Australian Postal Corporation deals with the privacy of data obtained through access to ongoing access to Telecommunications Data as per TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION AND ACCESS) ACT 1979, including how the data received is obtained, assessed, stored and ultimately destroyed;

d) The number of documents containing data obtained by the Australian Postal Corporation through its ongoing access to Telecommunication Data; and

e) The number of documents containing data obtained by the Australian Postal Corporation through its ongoing access to Telecommunication Data that the Australian Postal Corporation has determined are not likely to be required for a permitted purpose and therefore has destroyed, for the period of time from since the commencement of ongoing access to the data was granted until 17th March 2017.

For the avoidance of doubt, each reference to Australian Postal Corporation also includes the trading name Australia Post.

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) why the Australian Postal Corporation thinks that it requires access to the Telecommunications Data of Australians, considering there appears to be very few legitimate reasons that the Australian Postal Corporation would require ongoing access to the phonecall and internet browsing details of Australians to further its role of supplying postal services to Australia; and

2) the scale of Telecommunications Data of Australians being obtained, handled, stored and ultimately destroyed by Australian Postal Corporation.

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

Otherwise, please proceed with this as a formal request under the Freedom of Information principles & framework, i.e. the Freedom of Information Act 1982 & other associated guidelines and regulations.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Smith

Dear Ms Oliver,

Thank you for your update on my request.

I shall await your response in due course.

Kinds Regards,

Richard Smith

Dear Ms Oliver,

I would like to thank you for providing the Government Information that I requested on an informal administrative basis.

I have reviewed the information provided in your response of 5 April 2017 and would like to acknowledge that, despite Australia Post taking up my offer to deal with my request outside of the formal framework of the FOI Act, you have addressed my request in a very comprehensive manner.

I also note that Australia Post have also responded without requesting any payment or fees and well before the statutory timeframe as contemplated in the Act had elapsed (notwithstanding that the request had been treated as an informal administrative request).

Other Commonwealth Agencies could stand to learn a thing or two from your attention to detail and your efficiency.

Thank you again.

Kind Regards,

Richard Smith