Documents relating to Council's request for ongoing access to Telecommunications Data
Richard Smith made this Government Information (Public Access) request to Bankstown City Council
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear City of Canterbury Bankstown Council,
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.
Bankstown City Council 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 Bankstown Council'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 Bankstown City Council for access to Telecommunications Data under the TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION AND ACCESS) ACT 1979;
c) Documents relating to how Council 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 through its ongoing access to Telecommunication Data; and
e) The number of documents containing data obtained through its ongoing access to Telecommunication Data that Council 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 Bankstown City Council also includes the new amalgamated City of Canterbury Bankstown Council.
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 City of Canterbury Bankstown Council thinks that it requires access to the Telecommunications Data of Australians, considering there are very few other Local Authorities in the list of Agencies who have applied for ongoing access to Telecommunications Data; and
2) the scale of Telecommunications Data of Australians being obtained, handled, stored and ultimately destroyed by City of Canterbury Bankstown Council.
If this can be answered as informal request, please do so.
Otherwise, please proceed with this as a formal request under the NSW Freedom of Information principles & framework, i.e. the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 & other associated guidelines and regulations.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Smith
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Dear City of Canterbury Bankstown Council,
I note I have not received a response to my request for Government Information of 19 March.
Could you please update me on your progress to date and when Council expects to be able to comply with the GIPA Act?
Yours faithfully,
Richard Smith
Your email has been received by Bankstown City Council and will be
forwarded to the appropriate officer for action.
This is an auto generated email response. Please do not reply to this
email.
Should you need to contact council about your enquiry please phone
9707-9999.
Good morning Mr Smith
In reference to your enquiry for information relating to ongoing access to
Telecommunications Data, please note that changes which occurred with new
legislation that came into effect on 13 October 2015 revoked former
Bankstown City Council’s ‘enforcement agency’ title, and subsequently all
rights of access to historical telecommunications data.
Former Bankstown Council made submission to continue to access historical
telecommunications data for investigative purposes relating to Council
functions under the POEO Act for the prevention and detection of
environmental crime (primarily to identify suspects involved in illegal
dumping offences). The application was not successful, therefore,
Council no longer has access to historical telecommunications data.
I hope this information assists you, and my sincerely apologies for the
delayed response.
Kind regards
Imma
Imma Smith - Governance Officer
[1]CBCITY Outlook (SMITH Imma)-Image01 T. 02 9707 9986
E. [2][email address]
[3]www.cbcity.nsw.gov.au
[4]CBCity [5]CBCity [6]CBCity [7]CBCity [8]cid:image011.png@01D2C326.6C306450
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Dear Imma,
Thank you for your response to my request for Government Information.
In light of the circumstances of the change in legislation, I thank you for answering the broad intent of my request.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Smith