Methods for paying FOI request charges to the Department of Human Services
Luke Bacon 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,
Could you please send through all documents, including correspondence, from the last 2 years (March 2015 - March 24 2017) that refer to the payment methods the Department accepts for FOI requesters to pay charges.
Please exclude from the scope all FOI correspondence between requesters and FOI officers. I am only interested in internal documents; and correspondence between department staff, between staff and ministerial staff, and staff and 3rd parties.
Thanks for your help,
Luke Bacon
Dear Mr Bacon
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
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 Mr Bacon
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
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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Hey there,
In your reply today you've written:
> Your request involves too much work for the department
>
> Your request covers a wide range of documents. We are asking you to revise your request to give us more specific details about the information you are after because of the amount of work involved for the department. If you decide not to make any revisions I will have to refuse your FOI request as a 'practical refusal reason' exists.
>
> ...
>
> Before I make a final decision on your request, you can narrow the size of your original request and submit a revised request. You could consider narrowing the time frame for the documents you seek, as well as removing third party information from the scope of your request.
No worries. Let’s amend the scope to:
* narrow the time frame to the last 12 months (March 2016 - March 2017)
* exclude third party information, but still include correspondence with ministerial staff.
Thanks for helping me reduce the scope so we can continue the request.
Warm regards,
Luke Bacon
Dear Mr Bacon
Thank you for your email revising your request.
Could you please confirm whether you wish to exclude draft documents from
the scope of your request?
Kind regards
Jonathon
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
-----Original Message-----
From: Luke Bacon [mailto:[FOI #3283 email]]
Sent: Tuesday, 4 April 2017 7:45 PM
To: FOI.LEGAL.TEAM
Subject: Re: LEX28753 - Communication - Your freedom of information
request
Hey there,
In your reply today you've written:
> Your request involves too much work for the department
>
> Your request covers a wide range of documents. We are asking you to
revise your request to give us more specific details about the information
you are after because of the amount of work involved for the department.
If you decide not to make any revisions I will have to refuse your FOI
request as a 'practical refusal reason' exists.
>
> ...
>
> Before I make a final decision on your request, you can narrow the size
of your original request and submit a revised request. You could consider
narrowing the time frame for the documents you seek, as well as removing
third party information from the scope of your request.
No worries. Let’s amend the scope to:
* narrow the time frame to the last 12 months (March 2016 - March 2017)
* exclude third party information, but still include correspondence with
ministerial staff.
Thanks for helping me reduce the scope so we can continue the request.
Warm regards,
Luke Bacon
-----Original Message-----
Dear Mr Bacon
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division Department of Human
Services
Email: [1][email address]
[2][3]cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
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1. [4]mailto:[email address]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[5][FOI #3283 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This
message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet.
More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
[6]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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3. file:///tmp/cid:image002.png@01CE578F.EEB98AC0
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5. mailto:[FOI #3283 email]
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Hi Jonathon,
By your estimate if I just include the first and final drafts, rather than all drafts, of documents, would that be too great a burden on resources to be processed?
Thanks for your help,
Luke Bacon
Dear Mr Bacon
The bulk of the documents captured by the terms of your request are draft documents of correspondence that were to be sent to FOI applicants to notify them that a charge was payable in respect of their request.
You may wish to consider excluding draft correspondence to be sent to FOI applicants and internal invoicing documents created to record receipt of charges.
Kind regards,
Jonathon
FOI Practitioner
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
Email: [email address]
-----Original Message-----
From: Luke Bacon [mailto:[FOI #3283 email]]
Sent: Tuesday, 11 April 2017 9:13 AM
To: FOI.LEGAL.TEAM <[email address]>
Subject: Re: LEX28753 - Communication - Your revised request [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]
Hi Jonathon,
By your estimate if I just include the first and final drafts, rather than all drafts, of documents, would that be too great a burden on resources to be processed?
Thanks for your help,
Luke Bacon
-----Original Message-----
Dear Mr Bacon
Thank you for your email revising your request.
Could you please confirm whether you wish to exclude draft documents from the scope of your request?
Kind regards
Jonathon
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #3283 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
********************************************************************** 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 **********************************************************************
Thanks Jonathon,
I think this is a good idea. Please exclude from the scope of this request draft correspondence to be sent to FOI applicants and internal invoicing documents created to record receipt of charges.
Thanks for helping me refine this.
Yours sincerely,
Luke Bacon
Dear Mr Bacon
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
Jonathon
FOI Practitioner
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
**********************************************************************
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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1. mailto:[email address]
Hi Jonathon, thanks for your email.
> The processing time was suspended during a period of consultation under section 24AB.
> As this consultation did occur you can now expect a decision from us by 3 May 2017.
>
> I have taken your revised request to be for the following documents:
>
> 'Could you please send through all documents, including correspondence,
> from the last year (March 2016 - March 24 2017) that refer to the payment methods
> the Department accepts for FOI requesters to pay charges.
>
> Please exclude from the scope all FOI correspondence between requesters and FOI officers.
>
> Exclude third party information, but still include correspondence with ministerial staff.
>
> Please exclude from the scope of this request draft correspondence to be sent to FOI
> applicants and internal invoicing documents created to record receipt of charges.
>
> I am only interested in internal documents; and correspondence between department
> staff, between staff and ministerial staff, and staff and 3rd parties.’
Sounds good to me, let's proceed. Thanks for collating this so clearly :)
All the best,
Luke
Dear Mr Bacon
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
Jonathon
FOI Practitioner
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
**********************************************************************
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
**********************************************************************
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
Hi there,
Thanks for your notification.
I'd like to apply for reduction of the $414.80 fee on the basis of the strong public interest in transparency of the department’s Freedom of Information process. The method of payment for FOI request charges is an often overlooked but important aspect of the accessibility of the FOI system. Some methods require people to have a credit card, other methods (like money order) require additional fees on top of the FOI charges. These are barriers, potentially reasonable or not, to people making FOI requests. There are important privacy and security considerations that also feed into decisions about payment methods.
The public require access to our documents that refer to FOI payment methods in order to understand and aseess how the department makes decisions about them, so that they can participate in modernising the our public authority’s system.
As additional evidence that this request is intended for public benefit, rather than private or commercial, I've made this request through righttoknow.org.au. All the documents will be immediately public for everyone’s benefit.
Thanks for your consideration,
Luke Bacon
Dear Mr Bacon
Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your freedom of
information request.
Kind regards
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
**********************************************************************
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
**********************************************************************
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Freedom of Information Team,
Thank you for the detailed consideration and decision. It's very helpful and provides lots of useful information for applicants such as myself. Thank you.
As my response is extremely late please treat this as a withdrawal of the request. I hope to pick it up in a new form at a later date.
Thanks again,
Luke Bacon
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
The applicant has been allowed 30 days from 21 June 2017 to agree to the new charges or to request an internal review. If these things are not done then on 21 July 2017 the request will be deemed to have been withdrawn.