Meetings with Ministers
Justin Warren made this Freedom of Information request to Services Australia
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Department of Human Services,
If possible, please treat this as an informal or administrative request. Otherwise, please treat this as a formal request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
I request the following information from the department:
- Meeting agendas, minutes, and other notes for any and all meetings held with the Minister for Human Services between 1 Jan 2016 and 31 Dec 2016, inclusive.
- Meeting agendas, minutes, and other notes for any and all meetings held with the Minister for Social Services between 1 Jan 2016 and 31 Dec 2016, inclusive.
Yours faithfully,
Justin Warren
The Department of Human Services acknowledges receipt of your
correspondence.
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Dear Mr Warren
Please see attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
FOI Registration Officer
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
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Dear FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,
To clarify, when I refer to "The Minister" I mean both the Minister as a person and their office, as the Office of the Minister acts on the Minister's behalf.
I look forward to receiving the information I have requested.
Yours sincerely,
Justin Warren
Dear Mr Warren,
Please find attached correspondence regarding your request.
Kind regards,
FOI Practitioner
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
[1][email address]
[2]Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01CE26E6.4AB93B70
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IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
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Dear FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,
I am happy to narrow the scope of the documents that I seek to those that relate to either of:
- the Better Management of the Social Welfare System initiative, or
- Taskforce Integrity.
Yours sincerely,
Justin Warren
Dear Mr Warren
Please find attached correspondence in relation to your Freedom of
Information request (LEX 26566).
Regards
FOI Legal Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
* [1][email address]
[2]Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: cid:image001.png@01CD1993.20C1C870
This email and any attachments may contain information subject to legal
professional privilege or information that is otherwise sensitive or
confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are
prohibited from using or disseminating this communication. If you have
received this communication in error please notify the sender immediately
and permanently delete this email.
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IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
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Dear Department of Human Services,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Human Services's handling of my FOI request 'Meetings with Ministers'.
Section 24AB of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), requires the Department to provide a reasonable opportunity to consult with the contact person. I contend that a single emailed reply citing a practical refusal reason is not consultation.
"Assistance to revise request
(3) If the applicant contacts the contact person during the consultation period in accordance with the notice, the agency or Minister must take reasonable steps to assist the applicant to revise the request so that the practical refusal reason no longer exists.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), reasonable steps includes the following:
(a) giving the applicant a reasonable opportunity to consult with the contact person;
(b) providing the applicant with any information that would assist the applicant to revise the request.
"
The Department's FOI team is not contactable by phone. The Department's switchboard has no contact number for them, and will not transfer calls to the FOI department. When invited on other occasions to contact me by phone to consult, the FOI team has not done so. The only way to contact the FOI team is by email, and responses take days or weeks, and do not volunteer any information that can be used to narrow the scope of requests.
I contend that this is not "a reasonable opportunity to consult with the contact person".
Other government agencies' FOI departments are contactable by phone, and are responsive to email discussions. They have been quite helpful in assisting to narrow the scope of FOI requests so that they are tractable while still being informative. DHS has been evasive and secretive.
I contend that the Department did not provide a reasonable opportunity to consult, and that the Department did not provide "any information that would assist the applicant to revise the request" in order to "to assist the applicant to revise the request so that the practical refusal reason no longer exists." Evidence to support this contention exists in that the practical refusal reason was given a second time despite my good faith efforts to reduce the scope such that a practical refusal was no longer required.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/m...
Yours faithfully,
Justin Warren
Dear Mr Warren
Please find attached correspondence in relation to your Freedom of
Information request (LEX 28493).
FOI Legal Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
* [1][email address]
[2]Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: Description: Description: Description: Description:
Description: cid:image001.png@01CD1993.20C1C870
This email and any attachments may contain information subject to legal
professional privilege or information that is otherwise sensitive or
confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are
prohibited from using or disseminating this communication. If you have
received this communication in error please notify the sender immediately
and permanently delete this email.
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately
and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
e-mail
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