Documents relating to processing of FOI 244/17/18
Verity Pane made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Defence
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Department of Defence,
On 21 December 2017 I applied under FOI for copy of any documents held by the Information Management and Access Branch (IMAB) of the Governance and Reform Division, relating to guidance, procedure or policy for the management and administration of FOI applications made by members of the public, specifically formalised final versions of internal reference guides that Freedom of Information Directorate staff used to guide them in the processing of FOI applications. That FOI was given the internal FOI reference FOI 244/17/18 by Defence.
That FOI has been the subject of repeated delays by Defence, including a fraudulent practical refusal consultation and bogus charges estimate, for which Defence has repeatedly failed to provide any evidence to support the wildly exaggerated estimates it has claimed.
This is despite it being administratively requested on 21 December 2017, 20 January 2018, 25 January 2018, 6 February 2018, and 7 February 2018 for such evidence to be provided - requests that Defence ignored, in bad faith.
In particular, despite unsupported claims by Defence that these wildly exaggerated estimates were based on “conservatively estimated” sampling methodology of “documents currently held by the FOI Directorate on the Defence Electronic Records Management System (Objective)”, Defence has provided no evidence beyond it summary estimates (which are unable to support the reasonableness of such claims), and given that information to support those estimates has repeatedly been sought, but been refused to be provided by Defence, it now necessitates the following.
I now seek copy under FOI of all documents held by Defence that relate or refer to FOI 244/17/18 (but to avoid doubt is not for copies of documents that are in scope of FOI 244/17/18), including emails, text messages, and file notes, that were created during the period 21 December 2017 (when the request from first made) to today 1 March 2018, received by or sent from the Freedom of Information Directorate and it’s chain of direct reporting executives, excluding copies of any communications authored by me and any communications sent to me by the Freedom of Information Directorate (given I already have those copies).
No extensions will be consented to.
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Ms Pane,
Thank you for your FOI inquiry, it has been forwarded for consideration/action.
Regards,
Freedom of Information
Governance & Reform Division
Telephone: (02) 6266 2200
[email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Ms Pane,
I refer to your correspondence, dated , in which you sought access, under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), to:
“On 21 December 2017 I applied under FOI for copy of any documents held by
the Information Management and Access Branch (IMAB) of the Governance and
Reform Division, relating to guidance, procedure or policy for the
management and administration of FOI applications made by members of the
public, specifically formalised final versions of internal reference
guides that Freedom of Information Directorate staff used to guide them in
the processing of FOI applications. That FOI was given the internal FOI
reference FOI 244/17/18 by Defence.
That FOI has been the subject of repeated delays by Defence, including a
fraudulent practical refusal consultation and bogus charges estimate, for
which Defence has repeatedly failed to provide any evidence to support the
wildly exaggerated estimates it has claimed.
This is despite it being administratively requested on 21 December 2017,
20 January 2018, 25 January 2018, 6 February 2018, and 7 February 2018 for
such evidence to be provided - requests that Defence ignored, in bad
faith.
In particular, despite unsupported claims by Defence that these wildly
exaggerated estimates were based on “conservatively estimated” sampling
methodology of “documents currently held by the FOI Directorate on the
Defence Electronic Records Management System (Objective)”, Defence has
provided no evidence beyond it summary estimates (which are unable to
support the reasonableness of such claims), and given that information to
support those estimates has repeatedly been sought, but been refused to be
provided by Defence, it now necessitates the following..
“I now seek copy under FOI of all documents held by Defence that relate or
refer to FOI 244/17/18 (but to avoid doubt is not for copies of documents
that are in scope of FOI 244/17/18), including emails, text messages, and
file notes, that were created during the period 21 December 2017 (when the
request from first made) to today 1 March 2018, received by or sent from
the Freedom of Information Directorate and it’s chain of direct reporting
executives, excluding copies of any communications authored by me and any
communications sent to me by the Freedom of Information Directorate (given
I already have those copies).”
The Department of Defence excludes personal email addresses, signatures,
personnel (PMKeyS) numbers and mobile telephone numbers contained in
documents that fall within the scope of a FOI request unless you
specifically request such details. Defence also excludes duplicates of
documents..
If you do require these personal details, please inform us within five
days of receipt of this email so that the decision maker can consider your
request.
On 2 March 2018, Mr Cos Cameron, Assistant Director FOI, decided that
there are no charges associated with processing your request. Accordingly,
the statutory deadline for you to receive a response to your request
expires on 31 March 2018.
I note that the above mentioned due date is a Saturday. In accordance with
the FOI Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner, if
the last day for notifying a decision falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a
public holiday, the timeframe will expire on the first day following which
is none of those days. As such, the due date for you to receive a
response is 2 April 2018.
Should you have any questions relating to your request, please do not
hesitate to contact our office via telephone on (02) 6266 2200 or via
email to [1][email address]
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information
Governance & Reform Division
Telephone: (02) 6266 2200
[2][email address]
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning,
Please see below email sent to you yesterday for finalisation of FOI
request 324/17/18. We received the attached delivery email but to date no
read receipt has been received.
This email is being sent again to ensure you receive it.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence | CP1-6-001|
PO Box 7910 | CANBERRA BC ACT 2610
Ph: 02 6266 2200
email: [1][email address]
[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
From: FOI
Sent: Tuesday, 3 April 2018 4:08 PM
To: '[FOI #4401 email]'
Subject: 180403 1608 -
[FOI]-['[FOI #4401 email]'] FOI Request
324/17/18 – Decision and documents
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon,
Please find attached the documents and Statement of Reasons relating to
FOI 324/17/18.
FOI Disclosure Log
In accordance with the requirements of section 11C of the FOI Act, Defence
is required to publish details of information released under the FOI Act.
Defence publishes identified documents relating to requests within five
working days of receipt by the applicant or immediately following any
publication of the released material. Defence will also publish the
statement of reasons with privacy deletions. This request will be
published immediately.
Rights of Review
Under the provisions of section 54 of the FOI Act, you are entitled to
request a review of this decision. Your review rights are attached.
Should you have any questions in regard to this matter please contact this
office.
Kind regards,
Freedom of Information
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence | CP1-6-001|
PO Box 7910 | CANBERRA BC ACT 2610
Ph: 02 6266 2200
email: [3][email address]
[4]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
file:///tmp/blocked::mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
file:///tmp/blocked::http:/www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
3. mailto:[email address]
file:///tmp/blocked::mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
file:///tmp/blocked::http:/www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
Dear Melissa,
You seem to have a fraudulent view of what is unrelated material, given there are more pages of total black, which clearly relate to the scope, than there are of released documents, which almost wholly are documents already published here on RtK (with the remainder being emails acknowledging other emails that have been redacted, or else of material of no substance at all).
What is notably and specifically missing, despite it being the specific scope of the FOI, is any documentation which provides substantiation of the estimate calculation the Department has, on no evidence, put forward.
This verifies that despite Defence’s unsubstantiated claims, the charges estimate is essentially a work of fiction, used in bad faith, to fraudulently apply financial penalty for daring to use the FOI system to obtain documents from Defence.
It would seem your area is all the justification anyone needs to again highlight how the lack of an anti-corruption body at the federal level, has lead to such a festering culture of malfeasance, particularly in regard to the undermining of the FOI scheme, in the federal sector.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
Dear FOI,
I request an internal review of this decision, to have the multiple redacted pages, which clearly are not ‘irrelevant’ material, properly dealt with.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Ms Pane
1. I refer to your email below dated 15 April 2018, in which you requested an internal review under section 54 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), of the decision dated 29 March 2018 by Mrs Melissa Davidson.
2. The decision you received related to your request for access, under the FOI Act, to:
“…I now seek copy under FOI of all documents held by Defence that relate or refer to FOI 244/17/18 (but to avoid doubt is not for copies of documents that are in scope of FOI 244/17/18), including emails, text messages, and file notes, that were created during the period 21 December 2017 (when the request from first made) to today 1 March 2018, received by or sent from the Freedom of Information Directorate and it’s chain of direct reporting executives, excluding copies of any communications authored by me and any communications sent to me by the Freedom of Information Directorate (given I already have those copies).
Background:
On 21 December 2017 I applied under FOI for copy of any documents held by the Information Management and Access Branch (IMAB) of the Governance and Reform Division, relating to guidance, procedure or policy for the management and administration of FOI applications made by members of the public, specifically formalised final versions of internal reference guides that Freedom of Information Directorate staff used to guide them in the processing of FOI applications. That FOI was given the internal FOI reference FOI 244/17/18 by Defence.
That FOI has been the subject of repeated delays by Defence, including a fraudulent practical refusal consultation and bogus charges estimate, for which Defence has repeatedly failed to provide any evidence to support the wildly exaggerated estimates it has claimed.
This is despite it being administratively requested on 21 December 2017, 20 January 2018, 25 January 2018, 6 February 2018, and 7 February 2018 for such evidence to be provided - requests that Defence ignored, in bad faith. In particular, despite unsupported claims by Defence that these wildly exaggerated estimates were based on “conservatively estimated” sampling methodology of “documents currently held by the FOI Directorate on the Defence Electronic Records Management System (Objective)”, Defence has provided no evidence beyond it summary estimates (which are unable to support the reasonableness of such claims), and given that information to support those estimates has repeatedly been sought, but been refused to be provided by Defence, it now necessitates the following.…”
3. The statutory deadline for you to receive a response from Defence is 15 May 2018, which is 30 days from the date in which your application for internal review was received.
4. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact our office if you have any questions.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information Review Team
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-6-008 | PO Box 7910 | Campbell Park CANBERRA BC ACT 2610
Phone: (02) 6266 4434
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Unnamed FOI delegate from Defence,
Thank you for your template acknowledgement response. I will await your internal review decision.
Yours sincerely,
Verity Pane
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Ms Pane
1. Thank you for your email dated 15 April 2018, asking for an internal review of the decision you received under the FOI Act.
2. This email is to inform you of the decision by Mr Adam Friederich, Acting Assistant Secretary Enterprise and Reform on your internal review application.
3. In summary, Mr Friederich has upheld the original decision to release 14 documents intact. Mr Friederich found the material considered irrelevant does not fall within the scope of the terms of your request, therefore this information has been removed in accordance with section 22(1)(b) [Access to edited copies with exempt or irrelevant matter deleted] of the FOI Act.
4. The statement of reasons detailing Mr Friederich’s decision is at Attachment 1. As Mr Friederich has upheld the original decision the document will not be provided again.
Rights of review
5. The FOI Act provides for rights of review of decisions. Should you be dissatisfied with Mr Howard’s decision you have the right to seek review. Please find attached a copy your review rights at Attachment 2.
6. If you have any questions in relation to this matter, please contact this office.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Review Team
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence
CP1-6-008 | PO Box 7910 | Campbell Park CANBERRA BC ACT 2610
Phone: (02) 6266 4434
E-mail: [email address]