Employees holding a current Australian legal practising certificate and their salary band
Verity Pane made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Veterans' Affairs
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
To the Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Given the public interest around the excessive legal services expenditure of the Department, under s 17 of the FOI Act I request the following one page compilation.
For every DVA employee who holds a current legal practising certificate issued by any designated regulatory authority in Australia, provide the following:
Position Number............Position Title.............Salary Band (in $)*
*Salary Band does not refer to their specific annual salary, but the current salary band their current increment sits within, as specified in your workplace agreement.
I note DVA is already undertaken to give not dissimilar information to Senate Estimates, having taken a question on notice about this, therefore charging again for the same work would be in bad faith (only difference is reporting the salary band which is minimal work).
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
Good afternoon Verity Pane,
FOI 25409 - FOI acknowledgement
Further to your FOI request received by the Department on 7 November 2018, please accept this as acknowledgement of your request. A decision on your request will be due by 7 December 2018.
Kind Regards,
Information Law Section | Legal Services and General Counsel Branch Legal Assurance and Governance Division Department of Veterans’ Affairs
E: [email address] | W: www.dva.gov.au
-----Original Message-----
From: Verity Pane [mailto:[FOI #4940 email]]
Sent: Wednesday, 7 November 2018 12:00 AM
To: FOI <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Employees holding a current Australian legal practising certificate and their salary band [TO BE CLASSIFIED]
To the Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Given the public interest around the excessive legal services expenditure of the Department, under s 17 of the FOI Act I request the following one page compilation.
For every DVA employee who holds a current legal practising certificate issued by any designated regulatory authority in Australia, provide the following:
Position Number............Position Title.............Salary Band (in $)*
*Salary Band does not refer to their specific annual salary, but the current salary band their current increment sits within, as specified in your workplace agreement.
I note DVA is already undertaken to give not dissimilar information to Senate Estimates, having taken a question on notice about this, therefore charging again for the same work would be in bad faith (only difference is reporting the salary band which is minimal work).
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
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Dear Ms Pane
FOI 25409 - Decision and Statement of Reasons
Please find attached the decision relating to your freedom of information
request received by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on 7 November
2018.
Kind regards
Information Law Section | Legal Services & Assurance Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
E: [1][email address]
[2]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0
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IMPORTANT
1. Before opening any attachments, please check for viruses.
2. This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain confidential
information
for the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient,
please contact the sender and delete all copies of this email.
3. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the sender and are not
a statement of Australian Government Policy unless otherwise stated.
4. Electronic addresses published in this email are not conspicuous
publications and DVA does not consent to the receipt of commercial
electronic messages.
5. To unsubscribe from emails from the Department of Veterans' Affairs
(DVA) please go to
http://www.dva.gov.au/contact_us/Pages/f...
, and advise which mailing list you would like to unsubscribe from.
6. Finally, please do not remove this notice.
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To INFORMATION.LAW,
This FOI was sent to DVA on Tuesday 6 November 2018, and as per s 15(5)(b) became due 30 days thereafter, which was on Thursday 6 December 2018, as no extension under s 15AA or s 15AB given before expiry of s 15(5)(b) deadline, nor any s 26A, s 27 or s 27A third party consultation extension was claimed before expiry of s 15(5)(b) deadline, and no charges notice or practical refusal notification was issued before expiry of s 15(5)(b) deadline
No FOI decision was received from DVA before the expiry of the s 15(5)(b) deadline, and nor has any notice of extension to the s 15(5)(b) deadline been provided.
As such, this FOI is now deemed by s 15AC of the FOI Act to be a deemed refusal by the principal officer of the DVA.
The principal officer of the agency or minister is taken to have made a decision to refuse access to the document on the last day of the decision period. Agencies still remain obligated to continue to process an FOI request even where the statutory timeframe has expired and an extension of time has been refused or not sought. The expiry of the timeframe gives the applicant the right to apply for review of a deemed decision — it does not remove the agency's obligation to process the request.
Judging from recent history here on Right to Know, there has been multiple deemed refusals from DVA of late, this now being DVA’s preferred bad faith delaying tactic of choice currently (given the OAIC has been more wary in handing out s 15AB extensions to DVA it seems).
Given DVA hasn’t issued any decision notices to deemed refusals here on Right to Know, a failure to do so here will result in IC Review within 7 days.
Ms Pane