Dear Mr Stanton,

 

Thank you for your email of 4 November 2019.  It appears your intention
was to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the
FOI Act).  

 

Unfortunately, your request in its current form does not meet the
requirements of a valid FOI request under section 15(2) of the FOI Act and
cannot be processed.

 

Section 15(2) of the FOI Act provides:

 

(2)      The request must:

(a)      be in writing; and

(aa)    state that the request is an application for the purposes of this
Act; and

(b)      provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister,
to identify it; and

(c)      give details of how notices under this Act may be sent to the
applicant (for example, by providing an electronic address to which
notices may be sent by electronic communication).

 

To comply with paragraph 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, you need to give further
details about what documents you are seeking so that Austrade can identify
them. 

 

To assist you in this regard, I direct you to the definition of ‘document’
in subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act, which says:

 

document includes:

 

(a)      any of, or any part of any of, the following things:

 

(i)       any paper or other material on which there is writing;

 

(ii)      a map, plan, drawing or photograph;

 

(iii)     any paper or other material on which there are marks, figures,
symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to
interpret them;

 

(iv)     any article or material from which sounds, images or writings are
capable of being reproduced with or without the aid of any other article
or device;

 

(v)      any article on which information has been stored or recorded,
either mechanically or electronically;

 

(vi)     any other record of information; or

 

(b)     any copy, reproduction or duplicate of such a thing; or

 

(c)      any part of such a copy, reproduction or duplicate;

 

but does not include:

 

(d)     material maintained for reference purposes that is otherwise
publicly available; or

 

(e)      Cabinet notebooks.

 

If you wish to submit a valid FOI request, please identify the documents
that you seek access to.  The statutory timeframe for processing an FOI
request commences from the day after Austrade receives a valid FOI
request.

 

If you would like help to make a valid FOI request, please feel free to
contact Austrade by return email.

 

Alternatively, it appears you may be seeking information more closely
related to the functions of the Department of the Environment and Energy. 
Here is information about how to make an FOI request from that
Department: 
[1]https://www.environment.gov.au/about-us/...

 

Kind Regards,

 

Jodie Newall  on behalf of

 

Geoff Budd | Manager Legal Services

Legal, Procurement and Fraud

Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)

 

[2]Level 2, Nishi Building, 2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601,
Australia

T [3]+61 2 6201 7664 | M [4]+61 (0)408 404 628

[5][email address] | [6]http://www.austrade.gov.au 

 

If you are not the intended addressee of this email, please notify the
sender immediately and delete it. The content is for information and
carries no warranty; as such, the addressee must exercise their own
discretion in its use. Australia’s anti-bribery laws apply overseas and
Austrade will not provide business related services to any party who
breaches the law and will report credible evidence of any such breach. If
you are travelling overseas consult [7]http://www.smartraveller.gov.au -
the Australian Government's travel advisory service. Please consider the
environment before printing this email.

 

 

show quoted sections