Operational Information Staff FOI guide
Posty 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 Services Australia,
On the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) Agency Plan page on your website it states:
"b) the processes and timetable for identifying information required to be published under section 8(2) of the FOI Act and for publishing additional information under section 8(4) of the FOI Act
Each branch of the agency is responsible for the day to day tasks associated with complying with the IPS. For example, National Managers are responsible for ensuring that operational information is kept up to date on our operational information page. Consideration about whether operational information should be published is an integral part of this process.
To support this process, we have a guide for staff which:
describes processes to be followed internally to ensure published information is accurate, up to date and complete
helps staff identify what needs to be published under the IPS
describes processes for publishing information."
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/inf...
I request, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, copies of the following document(s):
The aforementioned guide for staff that National Managers would use that:
"describes processes to be followed internally to ensure published information is accurate, up to date and complete
helps staff identify what needs to be published under the IPS
describes processes for publishing information."
The most up to date version is requested - if a new revision is in progress, please just use whatever is the current "production" version (though being notified there is a new revision coming would be nice).
if it has closely related supporting documents, please include those as well.
In the interests of speediness, I am willing to consider Administrative Access to said documents should the document be provided within 30 days of the sending of this email. After this time - the FOI act applies as normal in all instances.
My preferred method of delivery of this information is for the page to simply be made available to the public on the Services Australia website somewhere (I suggest the IPS page I linked) and absolutely NOT a PDF sent over email.
Yours faithfully,
Posty
Thank you for making a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Services
Australia. The FOI team is operating with reduced capacity due to Services
Australia's role in the delivery of the Australian Government Disaster
Relief Payments.
The following is intended for people who are making a FOI request only
If your request is not essential at this time, please consider withdrawing
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Timeframe For processing your request
As staff have been diverted to process urgent Australian Government
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your request by 30 days. This means you can expect to receive a decision
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Could you please respond to this email stating "I Agree" to confirm that
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on processing your request as expeditiously as possible. We thank you for
your understanding and patience during this difficult time for all
Australians.
Dear Posty
Please find attached an acknowledgement letter from Services Australia
dated 18 March 2022.
Extension of time
The FOI team is operating with reduced capacity due to Services
Australia’s role in the delivery of the Australian Government Disaster
Relief Payments. We are therefore seeking your agreement to extend the
processing time by an additional 15 days.
If you agree to this additional time we would appreciate if you could
reply to this email with ‘I agree’.
I would be grateful if you could respond to this email by no later than
Tuesday, 22 March 2022 indicating if you agree to the extension of time.
Kind regards
Claudija
Information Access Branch
Legal Services Division
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D6B8DA.3399D830
Services Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land now
called Australia. We pay our respect to all Elders, past and present, of
all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.
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Dear Claudija,
I would like to remind you that by my lack of reply, as per the standard FOI legal principle I did not consent to any request for extension.
You tacitly acknowledge this by requesting that we reply granting the extension.
Having communicated with the department many times prior, regardless of circumstance you have requested time extensions prior to do the job for which you are employed for. I have sometimes granted it. However, I have noticed that this has now become your default position.
If you lack the people resources to complete your tasks in a timely manner, your request for clemency should not rest upon me, but your management to provide said resource.
If this task was in any way onerous i might have considered the request, but given you describe the document on your website, you should find it pretty easily.
Please forward this feedback to your FOI management.
Yours sincerely,
Posty
Dear Posty,
Please find attached correspondence from Services Australia dated 11 April
2022 in relation to your request for access under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982.
Yours sincerely
Claudija
Information Access Branch
Legal Services Division
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D6B8DA.3399D830
Services Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land now
called Australia. We pay our respect to all Elders, past and present, of
all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.
Please note: 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.
References
Visible links
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
FOI agencies just routinely ask or assume by default for agreements to extensions of time now, often on very vague and broad claims that realistically have no impact on FOI sections at all.
I agree the practice needs to be called out.