Dear SA Department of State Development FoI officer,

I am writing to request digital access (via downloadable .pdf file) to the Energy Market Transition Plan, as featured in the following 7 News item: https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/32...

I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act 1991.

Yours faithfully,

Dan Monceaux

Dear Ms Spencer,

Thanks for your response to my preliminary Freedom of Information request. I am writing to request that the lodgement fee of $33.50 in this case be waived, on the following basis:

If the 7 news report I referred to was accurate, the document in question, or closely associated documentation, has already been released to another applicant under the Freedom of Information Act 1991. I would effectively like to lodge a request identical to the former applicant's at this stage.

I am also providing below a copy of an email I sent to the Attorney-General's Department today which puts a case forward for departments publishing and maintaining FoI Disclosure Logs to avoid occurrences like this one, where a request is effectively being duplicated.

Yours sincerely,

Dan Monceaux

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To the Attorney-General,

I am writing to share some observations with you and make some recommendations regarding the management of Freedom of Information requests and their results in South Australia.

As a public interest researcher and documentary filmmaker, I have come to appreciate the value of Freedom of Information Acts in South Australia and at a Federal level. I have also noticed that South Australia is lagging behind other jurisdictions with respect to processes of making an application, paying for it, and accessing documents which have already been released. I would describe my experiences with FoI requests made outside of South Australia to have been more applicant friendly, and more consistent with Premier Weatherill's interests in the principles of open government and open data. https://data.sa.gov.au/sites/default/fil...

1) PUBLISH & MAINTAIN DISCLOSURE LOGS

In other jurisdictions, public registers are kept and list lodged Freedom of Information requests, and their outcomes. These are commonly referred to as Disclosure Logs. These logs, best held on websites and updated frequently, allow potential applicants to see whether documentation relevant to their inquiry has already been released. Maintaining these logs improves the public perception of any department or agency with respect to its transparency and customer focus. It also eliminates opportunities for duplicate or coincidentally similar requests to be made by multiple applicants.

I was surprised to learn today that in order to re-request a document which had already been released by the Department of State Development to another applicant, I would be required to pay a fee of $33.50. I consider this to be unreasonable, given that the publication of a disclosure log, ideally linked to the disclosed documents, would facilitate my inquiry at negligible administrative cost to the Department.

Two examples of Disclosure Logs maintained in other jurisdictions are provided for your consideration. I consider the latter, maintained by the Australian Institute of Sport to be best practice, as it links to the released documents and makes them readily available to the wider public:

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/resources/acce...
http://www.ausport.gov.au/legals/foi/foi...

I wish to recommend that Disclosure Logs be established and maintained by all South Australian government departments and agencies on their respective websites.

2) FACILITATE ONLINE PAYMENT

I have also been frustrated by the antiquated nature of standard payment mechanisms offered by South Australian departments and agencies. These are currently: cash (though locations for payment to be made are not clearly stated), check or money order (for which the recipient also requires confirmation of the recipient to be made via phonecall or written request.

I would like to recommend that an online payment portal is established to make payment of lodgement fees simpler, and credit card payment possible. While I can appreciate that FoI requests are handled by different departments and agencies, therefore complicating billing, I do not believe this problem to be insurmountable. I note that in my experiences with Federal departments, BPay options are offered and invoices are sent to the applicant after the applicant has agreed to accept the costs associated with the request.

I hope that you will consider my observations and recommendations and advise me on any actions likely to arise from them.

Yours sincerely,

Dan Monceaux

Dear Ms Spencer,

Could you please confirm that my email to you of 22 September 2016, including a copy of my related correspondence to the Attorney-General, has been received?

I hope that you have given it some consideration and that I can expect a response soon.

Yours sincerely,

Dan Monceaux