Former Ambassador John Lander
Dear Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
This is a Freedom of Information Request.
I seek access to the following:
(a) All correspondence between the DFAT and the Australian Government entities in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
(b) notes, summaries or records of discussions between the DFAT Secretary and former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
(c) Any submissions sent by the DFAT to the Foreign Minister or the Trade Minister in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
(d) Any submissions sent by the Foreign Minister or the Trade Minister to the DFAT in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
Yours faithfully,
Glenn Hamiltonshire
OFFICIAL
Dear Glenn
Thank you for your email dated 14 February 2025 seeking access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
This email sets out some information about how your request will be processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (the department).
Scope of request:
You have sought access to:
(a) All correspondence between the DFAT and the Australian Government entities in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
(b) notes, summaries or records of discussions between the DFAT Secretary and former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
(c) Any submissions sent by the DFAT to the Foreign Minister or the Trade Minister in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
(d) Any submissions sent by the Foreign Minister or the Trade Minister to the DFAT in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2010.
To assist the department in processing this request, we would be grateful if you could provide more information about this request, including the specific subject matter that it relates to.
If it emerges that the scope of your request is unclear or is too large for processing, the department will contact you to discuss re-scoping the request.
Timeframe for receiving our decision:
We received your request on 14 February 2025, and the 30-day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. A decision is currently due to you by 17 March 2025. The period of 30 days may be extended in certain circumstances.
Charges:
Please note that the department may issue charges for processing FOI requests. If applicable, we will advise you of any relevant charges when we are in a position to estimate the resources required to process your request.
Disclosure log:
Please note that, with some exceptions (such as personal information), documents released under the FOI Act may later be published on the department’s disclosure log.
Exclusion of officials’ names and contact details:
It is the department’s policy to withhold the personal information of junior staff from ministerial offices and government officials not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) or equivalent, including their email addresses and contact numbers, together with all signatures, mobile phone numbers, departmental inboxes and technical transmission details including reference numbers.
Duplicate documents and incomplete email chains:
Your request will be processed on the basis that you did not intend to capture duplicate documents or duplicate emails within email chains.
If you require the excluded information or documents, please let us know at [DFAT request email] so the decision-maker may consider; otherwise, we will take it that you agree to the information and documents being excluded from the scope of your request.
Personal Information:
If we need to consult with other people or organisations regarding your FOI request, we may need to disclose your personal information (e.g. your name). When we consult it may be apparent that you have made a request, even if we do not disclose your identity. Please let us know if you have any concerns in this regard. Further information on the way the department handles personal information is accessible via our privacy policy.
Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us by reply email.
Kind regards
DFAT FOI Team
_______________________________
Freedom of Information Section
Public Interest Law Branch | Regulatory and Legal Policy Division
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
OFFICIAL
Good morning Glenn
Please see attached correspondence regarding your FOI request.
Kind regards
DFAT FOI Team
_______________________________
Freedom of Information Section
Public Interest Law Branch | Regulatory and Legal Policy Division Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Dear FOI,
Apologies for my initial request, I am realising now just how broad one of the terms I had included was, and as such completely understand your response.
In this case, I seek to amend the terms of this request, as offered to me as an option in your reply.
I submit the following to be substituted for my request:
"I seek access to:
(a) Any correspondence between the DFAT and Australian Government entities in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
(b) any submissions sent by the DFAT to the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or Prime Minister since in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
(c) Any submissions sent by the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or Prime minister to the DFAT in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
For the av
Please exclude duplicates and documents already publicly released, including media releases, reports, articles and statements to the media.
I agree to having the names and direct contact details of non-senior staff removed, however I request that redactions do not include non-personally identifying information. For example, please leave the domain and job titles when redacting email addresses or signature blocks on emails.
I preemptively agree to requests for third party consultation if necessary"
The amended scope of this request seeks not only to reduce the time of which a request would encapsulate, but would also exclude correspondents from John lender's emails with DFAT, which I believe would likely take up a large amount of these requests (correspondents relating to employment, superannuation and the like should not be included, if that makes sense).
Yours sincerely,
Glenn Hamiltonshire
OFFICIAL
Dear Glenn Hamiltonshire
Thank you for submitting a proposed revised scope of:
(a) Any correspondence between the DFAT and Australian Government entities in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
(b) any submissions sent by the DFAT to the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or Prime Minister since in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
(c) Any submissions sent by the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or Prime minister to the DFAT in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
After consultation with the appropriate business area, we consider that your proposed revised scope does not resolve the practical refusal as it still captures a large amount of documents. As such, I intend to recommend to the Decision Maker that the matter be refused on the basis that it constitutes an unreasonable and substantial diversion of resources.
We would like to provide you with another opportunity to amend your proposed revised scope of your request to resolve the practical refusal.
In your consideration of amending your scope, you may consider revising the date range of your request to a shorter, more limited period of time and/or further specifying the subject matter of your request.
We would be grateful if you could please provide a revised scope by 10am Tuesday 25 March 2025. If we do not receive a response by then, we will proceed on the basis that you wish to continue with the request you submitted as per your email on Friday 21 March 2025 and I will recommend to the Decision Maker that the matter be refused on the basis that it constitutes an unreasonable and substantial diversion of resources.
Should you have any questions, please to contact us by reply email.
Kind regards
DFAT FOI Team
_______________________________
Freedom of Information Section
Public Interest Law Branch | Regulatory and Legal Policy Division Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Dear FOI team,
Given the subsequent comments made, and the comments implying that the (in my view, narrowed) request, I'll take this opportunity to attempt to provide one last amended request, which should deal only with correspondents with Ministers. This request, in my view, should be narrow enough to encompass a much more finite selection of documents.
I submit that my Freedom of Information Request should read as follows:
(a) any correspondents sent by the DFAT to the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or Prime Minister since in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
(b) Any correspondents sent by the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or Prime minister to the DFAT in relation to former Australian Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
Please exclude duplicates and documents already publicly released, including media releases, reports, articles and statements to the media.
I agree to having the names and direct contact details of non-senior staff removed, however I request that redactions do not include non-personally identifying information. For example, please leave the domain and job titles when redacting email addresses or signature blocks on emails.
I preemptively agree to requests for third party consultation if necessary
While I do believe the last request should have sufficed, I acknowledge that without access to the documents myself or the search, I would be unaware of how many things would be included. As such, this new and finalised wording should draw from a far more narrow scope of documents.
Yours sincerely,
Glenn Hamiltonshire
OFFICIAL
Good morning Glenn Hamiltonshire
Thank you for advising of the scope of your request as:
I submit that my Freedom of Information Request should read as follows:
(a) any correspondents sent by the DFAT to the Foreign Minister, Trade
Minister, or Prime Minister since in relation to former Australian
Ambassador John Lander since 1 January 2015.
(b) Any correspondents sent by the Foreign Minister, Trade Minister, or
Prime minister to the DFAT in relation to former Australian Ambassador
John Lander since 1 January 2015.
We are writing to you to seek your agreement to providing the department
with an extension of 30 calendar days to process your FOI request in
accordance with section 15AA of the FOI Act. This would mean that a
decision would then be due to you by 24 April 2025.
Background
The department has experienced delays in retrieving and assessing
documents potentially relevant to the scope of your previous requests due
to the large number of documents that were captured as part of preliminary
searches.
The additional time will enable the department to conduct searches in
relation to the above request, finalise its processes and provide you with
an outcome.
Please be assured that we will continue to process your request as
quickly as possible and will provide an outcome to you as soon as it is
available.
Timeframe
We would be grateful if you could please reply to our request by: COB
Tuesday 25 March.
If we do not hear from you, we may apply to the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner for an extension to the statutory timeframe.
Should you have any questions, please contact us by reply email.
Kind regards
DFAT FOI Team
_______________________________
Freedom of Information Section
Public Interest Law Branch | Regulatory and Legal Policy Division
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade