Manifests for special purpose flights between NOV 1st & DEC 2nd 2015
Dear Department of Defence,
I would like to make the following freedom of information request.
1.request the schedule and flight manifests of all special purpose flights outside of Australia i.e international flights between november 1st 2015 and december 2nd 2015
Yours faithfully,
Alan Cole
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Cole,
Thank you for your inquiry below.
The Schedule of Special Purpose Flights are prepared twice each year,
and tabled in Parliament. Once tabled, copies are available from the
Parliamentary Library and the Defence Publications Information to
Parliament page (both pages are linked on the Air Force webpage below.
In accordance with the Commonwealth Government Guidelines for the Use of
Special Purpose Aircraft, costings of special purpose flights are not
made available until the Schedule of Special Purpose Flights has been
tabled in Parliament. Prior to tabling, passenger names are not released
in order to comply with the Privacy Act 1988.
More information about Special Purpose Aircraft can be found at:
http://www.airforce.gov.au/Special_Purpo...
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The schedule for the period June - December 2015 will be tabled in June
2016.
Taking the above into account, if you were to proceed with this request
you would be provided with a decision to defer access until the tabling
has occurred. From my experience, and taking into account that the
documents will be tabled, applicants tend not to proceed with FOI
requests for the schedules as the process under the FOI Act will likely
incur a cost.
We will not take any further action on your request at this stage,
please feel free to contact me if you have any queries, including if you
wish to proceed with the request and be provided with a formal decision.
Kind regards
Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
Dear Stinson, Theresa MRS,
Thankyou for your reply however i would like a formal decision and i will explain my reason. You have already released information to a FOI request for the manifests of special purpose flights in october 2015 it is published on your own website
http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/Docs/Discl...
As this request was within the june to december 2015 period that you spoke of could you please tell me why this information was released now but my request for november would be deferred ? I hope you could clear this up for me thankyou.
Yours sincerely,
alan cole
UNCLASSIFIED
Thanks for your email Mr Cole,
Taking into account your email below, I gather you are referring to
'schedule' in a different context to the Schedule of Special Purpose
Aircraft discussed in my email. As such, I would suggest that you
remove the reference to 'schedule' in your scope, and instead revise the
scope to:
...flight manifests of all special purpose flights outside of Australia
i.e international flights between November 1st 2015 and December 2nd
2015.
Please advise if you agree to this change and we can begin processing.
Cheers
Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
Dear Stinson, Theresa MRS,
Thankyou for your reply. I will revise the request then to remove the scheduled reference in my original to request so it will be the "flight manifests of all special purpose flights outside of Australia i.e international flights between November 1st 2015 and December 2nd
2015"
Yours sincerely,
alan cole
UNCLASSIFIED
Thanks Alan,
We have registered the below request as FOI 173/15/16. We will be in
contact with you shortly to advise whether a charge will apply,
currently the FOI statutory deadline will expire on 15 January 2016.
Kind regards
Theresa Stinson
AD-MCM
FOI
MECC Division
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Cole,
Please find attached the preliminary assessment of FOI charges associated
with FOI 173/15/16.
Kind regards
Theresa Stinson
Assistant Director - Media Case Management FOI
Ministerial and Executive Coordination & Communication Division
Building F065
Level 2-012
Gallipoli Barracks
ENOGGERA QLD 4051
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
Alternative email: [1][email address]
Website:[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/index.htm
Privacy Statement:[3]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
FOI Act: [4]http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C0...
FOI Guidelines:
[5]http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/index.htm
3. http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
4. http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C0...
5. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
Dear Stinson, Theresa MRS,
I want to contest this charge i refer too http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/Docs/Discl...
As i am asking for less information then the above almost identical request i.e just international flights that request which asked for all flights had the fee waived. So could you explain how my request was calculated differently seeming as i asked for less information ?
I can revise it down even more if these charges will be upheld
Yours sincerely,
alan cole
UNCLASSIFIED
Good Afternoon Mr Cole,
Thank you for your email in response to the Preliminary Assessment of
charges which we forwarded to you for FOI request 173/15/16. We will
consider the matter and as required by section 29 of the FOI Act provide a
response within the 30 day timeframe which will expire on 20 January
2016 .
In the meantime, should you have any queries please contact
[1][email address]
Kind Regards
Paula Moloney
Case Manager, Freedom of Information
Ministerial and Executive Coordination and Communication Division
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Cole,
Please find attached the decision on your request for review of the
charges associated with FOI 173/15/16. Enclosures as listed in the letter
are also attached.
Kind regards
Theresa Stinson
Assistant Director - Media Case Management FOI
Ministerial and Executive Coordination & Communication Division
Building F065
Level 2-012
Gallipoli Barracks
ENOGGERA QLD 4051
Ph: (07) 3332 6359
Alternative email: [1][email address]
Website:[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/index.htm
Privacy Statement:[3]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
FOI Act: [4]http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C0...
FOI Guidelines:
[5]http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence
and is subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.
If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the
sender and delete the email.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/index.htm
3. http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
4. http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C0...
5. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
My annotation is only to add some information to the reply from the Department of Defence. I hope the information is helpful.
The officer has said, "Taking the above into account, if you were to proceed with this request you would be provided with a decision to defer access until the tabling has occurred." The extra information is that section 21(1) of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act says that: "An agency which, or a Minister who, receives a request may defer the provision of access to the document concerned: if the document concerned has been prepared for presentation to Parliament or for the purpose of being made available to a particular person or body or with the intention that it should be so made available—until the expiration of a reasonable period after its preparation for it to be so presented or made available". So the officer is not inventing the idea of deferment of access; she is explaining that there is a legal basis upon which your request for access will be --- not refused but deferred. And when the reason for the deferrment has passed, you can then obtain access.
The department has said it will ignore the law (I think it is sensible); they say that the decision is so obvious that they will not actually make a decision unless you force them to! Yet, I think it will help the department to keep within the law, instead of ignoring it, if you write to them and say that you wish to withdraw your request. Also, you will remain on good terms with the Department for any other request that you make.