Policies and documents pertaining to the protection of information incase of societal upheaval
Dear Australian Taxation Office,
I would like to request documents and policies covering the actions the ATO shall take during periods of great societal upheaval and disorder including any invasion, war or insurrection where sovereignty of the government is at risk and/or where the information the ATO holds on the citizenry might be used against it.
Additionally I would like details on what kinds of attacks against the state have been considered by the ATO and what measures will be taken to ensure the data the ATO holds will not be used against the people or the government in such attacks.
Yours faithfully,
Nathan Paul
Dear Mr Paul,
The ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au.
Please send your FOI request direct to [1][ATO request email], or lodge via
paper form available at
[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con....
Alternatively, you can contact the ATO on 13 28 69 and ask for Freedom of
Information.
Regards,
FOI team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[ATO request email]
2. https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con...
Dear FOI,
I respectfully request you respond via the righttiknow.org.au facility for the purposes of open government. I refer to the fifth point in section 3.48 of "Part 3 — Processing and deciding on requests for access" from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
https://oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-informati... which specifically covers the validity of requests via services such as this.
Yours sincerely,
Nathan Paul
Dear FOI,
With respect to this FOI request, please advise if the ATO intends to fulfil the request via the Right to Know website.
Again I refer to the fifth point in section 3.48 of "Part 3 — Processing and deciding on requests for access" from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
https://oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-informati... which specifically covers the validity of requests via the Right to Know service.
If I do not hear from you by close of business Friday, 16 September 2016, I will take it that you refuse to fulfil the requests in accordance with the FOI Act, and will proceed with an OAIC complaint.
Yours sincerely,
observant1
Dear Mr Paul,
The ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au.
Please send your FOI request direct to [1][ATO request email] or lodge using
the paper form available at
[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con....
Alternatively, you can contact the ATO on 13 28 69 and ask for Freedom of
Information.
Regards,
FOI team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[ATO request email]
2. https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con...
Dear Australian Taxation Office,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Australian Taxation Office's handling of my FOI request 'Policies and documents pertaining to the protection of information incase of societal upheaval'.
So far the ATO has been obstructing this FOI request with blanket statements of:
--
The ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au.
Please send your FOI request direct to [1][ATO request email] or lodge using
the paper form available at
[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con....
Alternatively, you can contact the ATO on 13 28 69 and ask for Freedom of
Information. "
--
There are many recent cases where this is simply not the case and it does not appear to be an allowable policy in any case as evidenced by the fifth point in section 3.48 of "Part 3 — Processing and deciding on requests for access" from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner https://oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-informati... which specifically covers the validity of requests via the Right to Know service.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...
Yours faithfully,
Nathan Paul
Dear Mr Paul,
The ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au.
Please send your FOI request direct to [1][ATO request email] or lodge using
the paper form available at
[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con....
Alternatively, you can contact the ATO on 13 28 69 and ask for Freedom of
Information.
Regards,
FOI team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
**********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[ATO request email]
2. https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con...
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
The Information Commissioner has made a formal recommendation to the ATO to start processing to Freedom of Information requests made via Right to Know. More Information on this can be found here: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org....
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
My comment is an addition to the comments by Mr. Fairless. I also make a specific suggestion.
Although the Australian Taxation Office wrote to the applicant to say that the Office would not process the application, something did happen. The thing that happened was that 30 days after the date when the application was lodged, section 15AC(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) had the effect of making a "deemed decision" to refuse the request ... this is unless the Commissioner grants more time.
Because of the effect of the Act, I make the following suggestions to the applicant:
(1) Do not write to the Australian Taxation Office and complain that a decision on your request is "overdue". It is not. A deemed decision was made 30 days after you lodged the application.
(2) Instead, use this Right to Know page (or you can create a new request page) to write exactly the same request to the Australian Taxation Office. If you want to grumble, then you can always say (in the new request email) that you made the same request earlier on this-and-then date.
I make this suggestion because if you only write and complain that your request is "overdue", then after a delay, the Australian Taxation Office might (correctly) write back to you and say, "No it is not". Of course, the purpose of this would be to delay to process your request (because the office will now have suddenly a lot of requests) but it will still have the effect that you must lodge a new request. Therefore, you can lose nothing to use this Right to Know page to make a new request now! It will start the clock again.
Dear Australian Taxation Office,
I would like to request documents and policies covering the actions the ATO shall take during periods of great societal upheaval and disorder including any invasion, war or insurrection where sovereignty of the government is at risk and/or where the information the ATO holds on the citizenry might be used against it.
Additionally I would like details on what kinds of attacks against the state have been considered by the ATO and what measures will be taken to ensure the data the ATO holds will not be used against the people or the government in such attacks.
Yours faithfully,
Nathan
Dear FOI Applicant,
Please see the attachment.
Yours faithfully,
FOI Team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
*********************************************************************
Dear FOI Applicant,
Please see attachment.
Regards,
FOI Team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
*********************************************************************
Ato Nduvho left an annotation ()
Hi Nathan
The ATO cannot refuse FOI requests through public websites such as Right To Know. I suggest you forward the following response to the ATO (or similar).
Dear ATO
The Australian Government Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's FOI Guidelines explicitly say that sites like Right To Know can be used to make FOI requests:
https://oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-informati...
"This requirement can be met by posting the request on a public website which forwards the request to a specified address of the agency or minister."
Accordingly I expect the ATO to respond to this FOI request in the usual manner.
Yours sincerely,