Parliament House Security Upgrades
Dear National Capital Authority,
I write to request under the Freedom of Information Act any documents held by the National Capital Authority relating to the building works intended to be completed at Parliament House which were approved by the Parliament in the December sitting period.
Yours faithfully,
Jeremy Cooper-Stout
Security: UNCLASSIFIED For Official Use Only
Dear Mr Cooper-Stout,
Your Freedom of Information Request: No 161708
I refer to your email below seeking access to documents under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), relating to:
‘The building works intended to be completed at Parliament House which
were approved by the Parliament in the December sitting period.’
Your request was received by the National Capital Authority (NCA) on 9
December 2016. Further information on processing of your request is set
out below.
Timeframe for receiving your decision
The statutory timeframe for processing a request is 30 days from the date
upon which your application was received by the NCA.
This timeframe may be extended where:
• charges are levied as prescribed by the Freedom of
Information (Fees and Charges) Regulations 1982 (the FOI Regulations)(see
charges below);
• consultation with third parties is necessary (see
consultation with third parties below).
Charges
Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. These charges are set by the FOI
Regulations and are for search and retrieval of documents, decision making
and provision of access (for example, copying and postage).
If the NCA decides to charge you in respect of this FOI request, we will
send you a preliminary assessment of the charges as soon as possible
following retrieval of any documents that may be relevant to your
request.
Consultation with third parties
The FOI Act requires the NCA to undertake consultation prior to making any
decision to grant access to documents (subject to exemptions) that
contain:
• information that originated with, or was received from, a
State or an authority of a State;
• information that originated with, or was received from, a
foreign government, an authority of a foreign government or an
international organisation;
• information concerning a person's business or commercial
affairs, or the business, commercial or financial affairs of an
organisation or undertaking; or
• personal information about a person (including a deceased
person).
As the documents covered by your request contain such information, the NCA
is required to consult with the relevant third parties before making a
decision on the release of those documents.
Section 15(6) of the FOI Act provides for an extension of 30 days to the
statutory 30 day time limit for processing requests. Therefore the time
limit for processing your request expires on 7 February 2017. Whilst this
is the statutory timeframe for a decision I do not believe this
consultation process shall be too onerous and will endeavour to have a
decision to you earlier in the new year.
If you require clarification of any of the matters discussed in this
letter, or have any queries throughout the process, please contact me by
phone on 02 6272 2972 or my email on [email address].
Yours sincerely,
Dan Cavanagh | Senior Officer, Property, Procurement & Governance
FOI DELEGATE
National Capital Authority
( (02) 6272 2972 | ( 0411 403 794 | 2 6273 4427
National Capital Authority | Treasury Building, King Edward Terrace,
PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 373, CANBERRA ACT 2601 | ; [1]www.nationalcapital.gov.au |
Twitter: @NCA_Media
LoveLBG is a strategy developed by the NCA to encourage social media users
to share tips on protecting Canberra’s waterways using the hashtag
#LoveLBG.
[2]lovelbg_logo_inline (2)
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Cooper-Stout
[mailto:[FOI #2824 email]]
Sent: Friday, 9 December 2016 4:04 PM
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Parliament House Security
Upgrades
Dear National Capital Authority,
I write to request under the Freedom of Information Act any documents held
by the National Capital Authority relating to the building works intended
to be completed at Parliament House which were approved by the Parliament
in the December sitting period.
Yours faithfully,
Jeremy Cooper-Stout
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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[3][FOI #2824 email]
Is [4][NCA request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to National Capital Authority? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[5]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
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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References
Visible links
1. http://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/
3. mailto:[FOI #2824 email]
4. mailto:[NCA request email]
5. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/change_re...
6. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...
Security: UNCLASSIFIED For Official Use Only
Good evening Jeremy,
Apologies for the late mail on this one. Due to the generalised nature of
your request, a significant amount of additional documents have been
identified that may be relevant to your request.
Please find attached a Notice of Charges decision letter providing details
of the preliminary assessment of charges payable in accordance with
Section 29(1)(b) of the FOI Act.
The total charge that you are liable to pay is estimated at $3 ,199.02.
As the phrasing of your request for information imposes such a
comprehensive search I believe we may be able to significantly reduced or
waive these charges if it were possible to reduce the scope of the
request.
I would like to gain a better understanding of the type of information
that you require and would be happy to assist you in refining the request
to ensure the relevance of the documents released. The only contact
details I have is the above email address but please feel free to contact
me tomorrow on the numbers provided below to discuss.
Kind regards,
Dan Cavanagh | Senior Officer, Property, Procurement & Governance
FOI Delegate
National Capital Authority
( (02) 6272 2972 | ( 0411 403 794 | 2 6273 4427
National Capital Authority | Treasury Building, King Edward Terrace,
PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 373, CANBERRA ACT 2601 | ; [1]www.nationalcapital.gov.au |
Twitter: @NCA_Media
LoveLBG is a strategy developed by the NCA to encourage social media users
to share tips on protecting Canberra’s waterways using the hashtag
#LoveLBG.
[2]lovelbg_logo_inline (2)
References
Visible links
1. http://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
The Information Commissioner has suggested that an amount of 40 hours is a reasonable maximum time for an agency to process a request (https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/corpora... ). If it is to be taking longer than 40 hours, then it might be reasonable for an agency to refuse to process the request (s 24: "Power to refuse request—diversion of resources etc."). In this case, the agency appears to say that they would be willing to spend 140 hours to process the request provided that the applicant will pay the charges. I think it is commendable but also very surprising. It is also good to read that the agency is helping the applicant by saying that a revised scope would be likely to make the carges much smaller. I say "Well done to the National Capital Authority."