UNCLASSIFIED

Our references: FA 13/11/00088; ADF2013/36555

 

Dear Ms Vi

 

I am writing to you in response to your email dated 3 November 2013,
purportedly under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and asking
that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection provide you with
a copy of the following document:

 

Incident Detail Report 1-34RSGX from the Department's Compliance, Case
Management, Detention and Settlement Portal. I also request any documents
attached to the detailed report.

 

The purpose of this email is to advise you that I consider the request may
be invalid under the FOI Act.  I will explain my reasons in full below.

 

Requirements of the FOI Act

  

The requirements for a valid FOI request are set out in section 15(2) of
the Act, which provides that:

 

The request must:

 

(a)  be in writing; and

 

(aa) state that the request is an application for the purposes of this
Act; and

 

(b) provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister,
to identify it; and

 

(c) give details of how notices under this Act may be sent to the
applicant (for example, by providing an electronic address to which
notices may be sent by electronic communication).

 

The Act envisages that an agency and the applicant will, where necessary
and appropriate, engage in dialogue about the request.  The Act also
envisages that there may be instances when an agency will wish to send a
formal legal notice to an applicant, for example, when the agency believes
that it would be a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources to
process the request or intends to charge the applicant for processing the
request.  In addition, the Act provides applicants with review rights
which are activated by the act of the agency ‘notifying’ the applicant of
the decision.

 

In order to engage in this dialogue, the applicant must provide an address
through which the applicant intends to be contactable.  It should be an
address through which the agency will be able to write to the applicant
and receive a response to the communication.  It must also be an address
through which the agency can reasonably assume that legal notices will be
received, read and responded to by the applicant.  This requirement has
been an element of a valid FOI request since the Act was first enacted in
1982.

  

Issues regarding your request

 

I am not satisfied that the email address you have provided meets the
requirement of ‘details of how notices under this Act may be sent to the
applicant’ (s.15(2)(c) of the Act).  In particular, it does not appear to
be an address to which the agency could send a ‘notice’.  The address you
have provided appears to be an address for publication of correspondence
on the internet.

  

Next steps

  

Please confirm by writing to [1][email address] that the email address you
have provided is an address to which the Department can send you notices,
by close of business Thursday 14 November 2013.  The request will then be
validated.

 

If you have not provided confirmation by that time, the request will be
closed as invalid.

 

Yours sincerely

Janelle

__________________________________

Janelle Raineri

FOI Inbox Manager

FOI & Privacy Policy Section
Department of Immigration and Border Protection

Email: [2][email address]

 

 

UNCLASSIFIED

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