Thank you for your email addressed to the Freedom of Information (FOI)
Section in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

We have received your email and it will be actioned accordingly.

If this message has been received outside business operating hours 09.00
to 17.00 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) Monday to Friday, your request
will be actioned on the next business day.

For further information on FOI in DIAC and how to request access to or to
amend information held by DIAC, please [1]visit our website.

To access our disclosure log of information released under FOI by DIAC
[2]click here.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information
Department of Immigration and Citizenship

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2. http://www.immi.gov.au/about/foi/foi-dis...

Dear Dr Wilson

Thank you for your FOI request below.  

At this stage, DIAC is unable to treat your FOI request as valid due to
the operation of Section 15 of the FOI Act.  At this stage, your FOI
request does not satisfy Section 15(2)(b) which relates to the provision
of such information concerning the document as is reasonably necessary to
enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister, to identify
it.    

Could please provide some clarification in regard to your request.  For
example, with reference to 'the volume of electronic mail to the
Minister's Office'  to which email address are you referring?  I note that
there are multiple email addresses for the Minister's Office, including
for advisers and other staff.  

There are a number of further issues on which we require clarification to
enable DIAC to treat your request as a valid FOI request.  These are:

o Can you please clarify whether you are seeking reports on email
traffic to the  Minister's office from members of the public, or does
it also include, for example, emails to individuals located in that
office and from officers within the department to the Minister's
Office?
o Can you please confirm which Minister you are referring to? Currently
the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has two Ministers,
Brendan O'Connor, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and
Minister Lundy, Minister for Multicultural Affairs.
o Can you please confirm if you are only seeking documents for
Minister(s), or is your intent that the scope should be read to
include Parliamentary Secretaries?  Currently DIAC has a Parliamentary
Secretary of Multicultural Affairs, Senator Matt Thistlethwaite.

For your reference, the address of [email address] is listed as the
contact email for Minister O'Connor in his role for Minister for
Immigration and Citizenship and was the contact email for previous
Ministers (in their capacity as Minister for Immigration).

Thank you for providing this clarification

Regards

Erin Welsh
A/g Assistant Director
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Telephone: (02) 6225 6988
Freedom of Information Helpdesk
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
[1]Inactive hide details for Jason Wilson
<[FOI #83 email]>Jason Wilson
<[FOI #83 email]>

Jason Wilson FOI requests at
<[FOI #83 email]>  To DIAC
<[email address]>
26/03/2013 09:35 AM cc
Freedom of
Subject Information
request - Emails
to minister
Protective
Mark

     Dear Department of Immigration and Citizenship,
   
    I write seeking information under the Freedom of Information Act.
   
    In addition to a separate request for emails to the department, I
    would like to get data on the volume of electronic mail to the
    minister's office from 2000 through 2012.
   
    I would like to see any reports, records of traffic or
    communications that show how much data the minister's email address
    is receiving across that period.
   
    I am happy to receive this on an annualised, quarterly or monthly
    basis.
   
    This information will be used in academic research on public
    communication.
   
    Yours faithfully,
   
    Dr Jason Wilson
   
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
   
    Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
    [FOI #83 email]
   
    Is [email address] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
    requests to Department of Immigration and Citizenship? If so,
    please contact us using this form:
    [2]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/contact
   
    Write your response as plain text. Only send PDF documents as a
    last resort. Government guidelines make it clear that PDF is not an
    acceptable format for you to use in the delivery of government
    information.
    [3]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
   
    Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
    published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
    [4]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
   
    If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your
    web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
   
   
   

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References

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2. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/contact
3. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
4. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...

Thank you for your email addressed to the Freedom of Information (FOI)
Section in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

We have received your email and it will be actioned accordingly.

If this message has been received outside business operating hours 09.00
to 17.00 (Australian Eastern Standard Time) Monday to Friday, your request
will be actioned on the next business day.

For further information on FOI in DIAC and how to request access to or to
amend information held by DIAC, please [1]visit our website.

To access our disclosure log of information released under FOI by DIAC
[2]click here.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information
Department of Immigration and Citizenship

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.immi.gov.au/about/foi/foi.htm
2. http://www.immi.gov.au/about/foi/foi-dis...

Dear Dr Wilson

Thankyou for clarifying the scope of your request.  DIAC now considers
that it is a valid request under the FOI Act and will proceed to process
accordingly.

Regards

Linda Rossiter
Director
FOI and Privacy Policy
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Telephone: (02) 6264 1482
[1]Inactive hide details for Jason Wilson
<[FOI #83 email]>Jason Wilson
<[FOI #83 email]>

Jason Wilson To [email address]
<[FOI #83 email]>  cc
Re: Freedom of Information
09/04/2013 03:23 AM Subject request - Emails to
minister  
 [SEC=IN-CONFIDENCE:CLIENT]
Protective
Mark

     Dear Ms Welsh,
   
    Thanks for your reply and request for clarification, which I hope I
    can provide.
   
    I am primarily interested in emails from members of the public to
    ministerial addresses. If it is possible to disambiguate this from
    internal traffic, I am very happy to have those figures
    specifically.
   
    I am interested in all ministers connected with the department in
    the time period mentioned. So
   
    Philip Ruddock
    Amanda Vanstone
    Kevin Andrews
    Chris Evans
    Chris Bowen
    Brendan O'Connor
    Kate Lundy
   
    I am not interested in Parliamentary Secretaries.
   
    To clarify, the purpose of the request is to asecertain the
    increase, if any, in the emails from the public to ministerial
    emails as an indicator of the increased burden on staff in
    answering public inquiries.
   
    I hope this sufficiently clarifies my request.
   
    Yours faithfully,
   
    Jason Wilson
   
   

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