Military gifts to Indonesia
Dear Department of Defence,
Under the Freedom of Information Act I request the following information:
Please provide a list of all military vessels, aircrafts, vehicles and any other military equipment that have been "gifted" or other donated to the Indonesian Government, between 2001 and 2017.
Yours faithfully,
Asher Hirsch
UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning,
Thank you for your email. Your email has been forwarded for consideration/action.
Kind regards
FOI Operations
FOI @defence.gov.au
(02) 62662200
http://www.defence.gov.au/foi/
-----Original Message-----
From: Asher Hirsch [mailto:[FOI #3771 email]]
Sent: Monday, 7 August 2017 09:07
To: FOI requests at Defence
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Military gifts to Indonesia
Dear Department of Defence,
Under the Freedom of Information Act I request the following information:
Please provide a list of all military vessels, aircrafts, vehicles and any other military equipment that have been "gifted" or other donated to the Indonesian Government, between 2001 and 2017.
Yours faithfully,
Asher Hirsch
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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.
UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning
The present statutory deadline for you to receive a response to your
request is 6 September 2017. However, the departmental area processing
your request has advised our office that due to their current
workload that they will be unable to process your request within the
required time frame.
As such, our office is seeking your agreement to a 30 day extension of
the statutory deadline under section 15AA [extension with agreement] of
the FOI Act, in order that the area has sufficient time to consider your
FOI request.
Should you agree, the statutory deadline for you to receive a response to
your request will expire on 6 October 2017.
Your response by Wednesday, 30 August 2017 would be gratefully
appreciated.
Regards
Nicole Hanna
FOI Case Officer
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence | CP1-6-003| PO Box 7910 | Canberra BC ACT 2610 |
(02) 6266 3948| Email
[1][email address]
[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
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
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2. http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
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Dear Hanna,
Thank you for your email and keeping me updated.
I agree to the request for the extension and note the new deadline of 6 October 2016.
Yours sincerely,
Asher Hirsch
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon
Please find attached the Statement of Reasons and document relating to FOI
059/17/18.
FOI Disclosure Log
In accordance with the requirements of section 11C of the FOI Act, Defence
is required to publish details of information released under the FOI Act.
Defence publishes identified documents relating to requests within five
working days of receipt by the applicant or immediately following any
publication of the released material. Defence will also publish the
statement of reasons with privacy deletions. This request will be
published on 13 October 2017.
Rights of Review
Under the provisions of section 54 of the FOI Act, you are entitled to
request a review of this decision. Your review rights are attached.
Should you have any questions in regard to this matter please contact this
office.
Kind regards,
Nicole Hanna
FOI Case Officer
Information Management and Access
Governance and Reform Division
Department of Defence | CP1-6-006| PO Box 7910 | Canberra BC ACT 2610 |
(02) 6266 2096| Email
[1][email address]
[2]http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
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/privacy.asp
http://www.defence.gov.au/FOI/privacy.asp
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
The words "make a list" may be read by the agency as a request for information, rather than a request for documents. Under the FOI Act, requests are framed as requests for documents, and sometimes if not explicitly put as a request for documents, agencies will make unhelpful responses like "Under the provisions of the FOI Act, we are required to provide documents not information".
This is somewhat misleading, however, given s 17 does provide an mechanism to obtain information from documents held, if it is reasonably possible to compile this information based off existing records in the agency's possession, into a discrete document.
An FOI request can be described quite broadly and must be read fairly by an agency, and it would be unlawful for an agency to be deliberately obtuse, narrow or pedantic with its comprehension of said request [see Re Anderson and AFP [1986] AATA 79 and Young v Wicks (1986) 79 ALR 448]. An applicant may describe a class of documents, or all documents of a specified class that contain information of a particular kind, or all documents held that mention a particular subject or person, and that is sufficient for the purposes of an FOI application.
It is clear from the FOI request made that the applicant is seeking documents about gifts made by the Australian Government to the Indonesian Government of military equipment and hardware, and this is sufficient information with which to locate documents that may be of relevance, and produce the list sought as a s 17 compilation.
Be aware though, agencies such as Defence tend to keen to claim practical refusal grounds under s 24AA(1)(a)(i) claiming processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations, but hopefully won't do so here (if they do, require them to demonstrate they have done a scoping study).