Dear Mr Brewski
 
We refer to your email below requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).   You refer to the article in the Canberra
Times, "APS bosses 'self serving' in calls for greater secrecy over FoI
laws", published 15 April 2016, and request access to documents which
detail:

* the nature of suggested changes to FOI laws, and/or
* evidence to support any related claims made by the department or its
staff.

 
The article you refer to discusses the ‘deliberative process’ exemption
and the provision of advice to Ministers.  This issue has been the subject
of extensive public debate and comment.  For example, Dr Allan Hawke AC
discussed the ‘deliberative processes’ exemption and recommended
amendments to the FOI Act in his report entitled [1]Review of the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 and Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010
published in July 2013.
 
Professor Peter Shergold AC also discussed issues relating to the
provision of confidential advice and recommended an amendment to the FOI
Act in respect of deliberative process documents in his report entitled
[2]Learning from Failure published in August 2015.
 
There are a number of other publically available documents which discuss
related issues, including:
 

* Australian Law Reform Commission, Open government: A review of the
federal Freedom of Information Act 1982, available at <
[3]http://www.alrc.gov.au/sites/default/fil...>
* Australian Law Reform Commission, Submission to Senate Standing
Committee inquiry into the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform)
Bill 2009 (Cth) and the Information Commissioner Bill 2009 (Cth),
available at <
[4]http://www.alrc.gov.au/alrc-submission-s...>
* Judith Kaye Bannister, Accountability or Participation? Disentangling
the Rationales for FOI Access to Deliberative Material, University of
Adelaide Law Research Paper No. 2016-12, available at
[5]http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?a...
* Daniel Stewart, (2005) ‘Assessing Access to Information in Australia:
The impact of freedom of information laws on the scrutiny and
operation of the Commonwealth government’, in New Accountabilities,
New Challenges (2005), ANU Press, available at <
[6]http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploa...>
* Simon Murray, (2012) Freedom of Information Reform: Does the New
Public Interest Test for Conditionally Exempt Documents Signal the
Death of the Howard Factors, University of Tasmania Law Review, Vol 31
Issue 1, available at <
[7]http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?ha...>
* Tony Lupton, (2012) Cabinet confidentiality and parliamentary scrutiny
in the information age, Australasian Parliamentary Review Volume 27
Issue 1, available at
<[8]http://www.aspg.org.au/journal/2012autum...>

 
We trust the above information satisfies your request. As such, we will
deem the request to be withdrawn if we do not hear from you in the
alternative by Friday, 29 April 2016.
 
Kind regards
 
FOI team
Legal, Audit and Assurance Branch| Corporate Network
[9][email address]
———————————————————————
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science | [10]www.industry.gov.au
 
Legal In Confidence - This transmission is intended only for the use of
the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged
information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that
any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If
you have received this transmission in error, please notify me immediately
by telephone and delete copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.
 
 
 
Dear Department of Industry,
 
I refer to the article in the Canberra Times, "APS bosses 'self serving'
in calls for greater secrecy over FoI laws", published 15 April 2016
([11]http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national...).
 
I request any documents which detail:
- The nature of suggested changes to FOI laws, and/or
- Evidence to support any related claims made by the department or its
staff
 
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Dwayne Brewski
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[12][FOI #1819 email]
 
Is [13][Department of Industry, Science, Energy &amp; Resources request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Department of Industry? If so, please contact us using this
form:
[14]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
 
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[15]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
 
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.
 
 

show quoted sections