Gold Pass Travel and Employment of Family Members

Evelyn Doyle made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Finance

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear FOI Section

I would like to request the following documents under the FOI Act:

1. Any correspondence from former members of parliament regarding the government's proposed changes to Gold Pass travel entitlements since January 2014;

2. Any correspondence since May 2013 from members or senators regarding the government's changes to the employment of certain family members (ie. Prohibition on the Employment of Certain Family Members under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984); and any internal/external correspondence that indicates the reason why this circular is now filed under 'historical' rather than current circulars on the MAPS (Finance) website.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information section of the
Department of Finance (Finance).  We have received your email and will
endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

 

You may view Finance’s Freedom of Information procedures and processes on
[1]http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html

 

Further information relating to Freedom of Information can be found on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s [2]website.

 

[3]Signature blocks-blue bar.jpg

Freedom of Information

Legal Services Branch

Department of Finance

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...

Dear FOI Section

I have not as yet received a response to this request of 3 November. Do you need any more information or perhaps can advise on scope?

Thanks in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Ms Doyle,

Freedom of Information Request – FOI15/116 Thank you for your email to the Department of Finance (Finance) requesting access to the following under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

1. Any correspondence from former members of parliament regarding the government's proposed changes to Gold Pass travel entitlements since January 2014;

2. Any correspondence since May 2013 from members or senators regarding the government's changes to the employment of certain family members (ie. Prohibition on the Employment of Certain Family Members under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984); and any internal/external correspondence that indicates the reason why this circular is now filed under 'historical' rather than current circulars on the MAPS (Finance) website.

The statutory period for processing your request commences from the day after Finance received your request. Your request was received by Finance on 3 November 2015. The processing period may be extended if we need to consult third parties, impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.

Liability to pay a charge
You will be notified of any charges in relation to your request as soon as possible, before we process any requested documents or impose a final charge.

Publication
As required by the FOI Act, any documents provided to you under the FOI Act will be published on our disclosure log, unless an exemption applies or the documents are characterised as containing personal information. Documents will be published within one working day after they are released to you.

Policy to exclude junior officer contact details Finance has adopted a policy to generally exclude from any documents released under FOI, the names and contact details of junior staff (non-SES officers) and staff employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 (advisor level and below). Finance’s preference is to reach agreement with FOI applicants to exclude these details from the scope of the request. Where there is no objection, the names and contact details of junior officers are redacted under section 22 of the FOI Act, on the basis that these details are irrelevant to the request.

Please contact the FOI Team on the below contact details if you wish to discuss your request.

Regards, Kira

FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

2 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Ms Doyle,

 

Please find attached, a charges letter in regards to your FOI request (our
reference number FOI 15/116).

 

As noted in the charges letter, Finance has identified that third party
consultation will be required for the processing of your request.  As
such, the due date of your request will be extended by an additional 30
days to allow for the third party consultation. 

 

Regards, Kira

[1]Department of Finance and Deregulation

FOI Officer

Legal Services Branch

Corporate Services Division

Department of Finance

T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]

 

UNCLASSIFIED

show quoted sections

References

Visible links

Dear FOI Section

Thanks for your letter outlining charges for FOI 15/116.

Please note I have provided my credit card details to the FOI section directly for full payment of the charges.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information section of the
Department of Finance (Finance).  We have received your email and will
endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

 

You may view Finance’s Freedom of Information procedures and processes on
[1]http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html

 

Further information relating to Freedom of Information can be found on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s [2]website.

 

[3]Signature blocks-blue bar.jpg

Freedom of Information

Legal Services Branch

Department of Finance

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Evelyn,

I have provided a tax invoice and receipt to your direct email address.

As noted, Finance will be conducting formal third party consultation and as such the due date for a decision to be notified to you is 22 January 2015.

Regards, Kira

FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Kira

Thank you, I have received the invoice and receipt.

Looking forward to the decision on 22 January 2016.

Have a happy Christmas.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information section of the
Department of Finance (Finance).  We have received your email and will
endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

 

You may view Finance’s Freedom of Information procedures and processes on
[1]http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html

 

Further information relating to Freedom of Information can be found on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s [2]website.

 

[3]Signature blocks-blue bar.jpg

Freedom of Information

Legal Services Branch

Department of Finance

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Ms Doyle

Following our conversation this afternoon, I would be grateful is you can please confirm that you are happy for an extension of time under s15AA of the FOI Act for a period of one week. Your request will now be due on Friday 29 January 2015.

Many thanks

FOI Coordinator
Department of Finance
02 6215 1783

show quoted sections

Good afternoon

Yes, I am happy for an extension to 29 January 2016.

Regards,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information section of the
Department of Finance (Finance).  We have received your email and will
endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

 

You may view Finance’s Freedom of Information procedures and processes on
[1]http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html

 

Further information relating to Freedom of Information can be found on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s [2]website.

 

[3]Signature blocks-blue bar.jpg

Freedom of Information

Legal Services Branch

Department of Finance

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...

Dear FOI Requests,

Good afternoon. I wonder if we are still on track to supply these documents today?

Thanks in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Good afternoon Ms Doyle

Following your FOI request please find attached the Department's Statement of Reasons together with relevant documents.

Due to the volume of documents they well be sent over the next five emails.

Kind regards

Meagan,
FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

5 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Part 2 of 5

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

4 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Part 3 of 5

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

6 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Part 4 of 5

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Department of Finance

6 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Part 5 of 5.

Final email.

Kind regards

Meagan,
FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]

show quoted sections

PJK left an annotation ()

I realise this is Right to Know, and I appreciate your work, but I just wanted to bring to your attention the fact that someone's private email address is visible on page 2 of the document linked at FOI 15 116 Document 6 Redacted.pdf of this request.
It appears this is an error, in view of the fact this has been redacted on the version on the Dept's disclosure log: http://www.finance.gov.au/sites/default/...
In deference to the individual's privacy, I am wondering if a version of this document should be reposted with the email address deleted.
Cheers.

Evelyn Doyle left an annotation ()

Thanks for passing on this privacy issue PJK. I have emailed RTK directly as well to bring attention to your note.
Regards
Evelyn

Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Uploaded by the Right To Know administrators, this is the "Part 1 of 5" message above we had to redact personal information from.

Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Department of Finance

1 Attachment

Henare Degan left an annotation ()

Thanks for noticing this PJK and Evelyn.

It's a bit messy but we've hidden the original message that contained the personal information and then re-uploaded the documents from the message with the personal information redacted, as per the authority's FOI disclosure log.