Dear Australian National University,

This is an FOI request under the FOI Act.

I wish to obtain to following documents:
* all agreements, such as Memorandums of Understanding, agreed between each of the Crawford School and the Law School, and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library in the last two years (I believe there are two agreements: one between the Crawford School and the Parliamentary Library, and another between the Law School and the Parliamentary Library).
* all documents related to the negotiation and concluding of those agreements,
* all documents related to the interactions between the Parliamentary Library and each of the Crawford School and the Law School since those agreements came into effect,
* all documents related to requests from the Parliamentary Library for work or services (however described) under those agreements, and
* all work performed under those agreements.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah Wright

Dear Mr Brumby,

Thank you for your response. I believe that charges should not be imposed in relation to this request because the request is in the public interest. The reasons that this request is in the public interest are as follows:

1. No private interest

No private interest is apparent from this request. The request, therefore, must be in the public interest.

2. Senate Estimates Questions on Notice

The Parliamentary Library has, in the last two years, provided two answers to Questions on Notice to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee in which the Library denied that it was intending to outsource function and activities. Those questions are 2017-18 Budget Estimates question number 48 asked on 7 July 2017, and 2017-18 Additional Estimates question number 36 asked on 26 February 2018.

The Senate is an important institution in the Australian political system, which promotes scrutiny and accountability of governmental matters. Specially, the functions of the Senate, as set out in Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice (14th edition, pages 28 to 30), state that the functions of the Senate include providing ‘adequate scrutiny of financial measures [such as expenditure by government agencies], especially by committees considering estimates’, and ‘to keep itself and the public informed, and to insist on ministerial accountability for the government’s administration.’ In the case of matters pertaining to the Parliament, it is common practice to substitute the concepts of ‘ministers’ and ‘the government’ with the concepts of the ‘parliamentary presiding officers’ and ‘the Parliament’, but the concepts apply equally to the Parliament.

Resolutions of the Senate, which are given force because of Section 49 of the Constitution and the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987, provide that it is a contempt of the Senate to mislead the Senate.

The documents requested go directly to whether or not the answers provided to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee were correctly answered, and whether, therefore, the Senate was misled. Given the functions of the Senate, including its function to ‘keep itself and the public informed’, the request is in the public interest because the documents within the scope of the request will go to the correctness, or otherwise, of the answers provided by the Library to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee while it was performing its scrutiny and public information roles.

3. Compliance with Commonwealth Procurement Rules

The Commonwealth Procurement Rules provide that ‘standing offers,’ regardless of their value, must be published on the AusTender website within 42 days of an entity having entered into an arrangement (Rule 7.18). I believe the MoUs constitute a standing offer under the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

I have surveyed the AusTender website and I have not been able to identify where the MoUs have been notified in accordance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

The release of documents that might disclose non-compliance with a Commonwealth law, particularly where that law is directed at publicly disclosing information which is the subject of this request, is in the public interest.

I trust these reasons provide a sufficient basis for you to establish that the FOI request is in the public interest.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Wright

Dear Mr Brumby,

I refer to your decision in relation to my request for charges to be reduced in full.

Could you please provide me a statement of reasons under section 13 of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Wright

Dear Mr Brumby,

How are you going with the statement of reasons? I hope you are not thinking that you can not respond and then claim the FOI application has lapsed.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Wright