Recent appointments to the Nomination Panel for ABC and SBS Appointments
Henare Degan made this Freedom of Information request to Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
This is an application for all documents, reports and emails etc. since January 1, 2014 regarding the two recent appointments to the Nomination Panel for ABC and SBS Appointments of Dr Janet Albrechtsen and the Hon Neil Brown QC.
Please treat this as a request for administrative access. If for some reason the request cannot be dealt with in this way, please treat it as a formal application under the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours faithfully,
Henare Degan
UNCLASSIFIED
Our reference: FOI/2014/125
Dear Henare Degan
Thank you for your email below dated 12 July 2014, received by the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), in which
you made a request to the Department under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (the FOI Act).
Timeframe for receiving your decision
We received your request on 12 July 2014 and the 30 day statutory period
for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. You
should therefore expect a decision from us by Monday, 11 August 2014. The
period of 30 days may be extended in certain circumstances. We will
advise you if there is any extension of time.
Charges
Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department decides that you
are liable to pay a charge, we will send you a preliminary assessment of
the charge as soon as possible.
Publication of documents
Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[1]http://www.dpmc.gov.au/foi/ips/disclosur..., subject to
certain exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any objections to
the publication of any of the information which may be released to you
please contact us by email at [2][DPMC request email]. If you do wish to object
to the publication of information, you would need to provide supporting
reasons.
Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details
It is the Department’s policy to withhold the names and contact details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) as well as the mobile
or direct numbers of SES officers within the Department and other agencies
contained within documents that fall within scope of the request. The
names and other details of departmental or agency SES officers will not be
withheld unless there is some reason for that information to be exempt
from release. If you require the names and contact details of non-SES
officers or the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers please let us
know at [3][DPMC request email] so the decision-maker may consider; otherwise we
will take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the
scope of your request.
We will write again when the Department has more information. Further
information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner at
[4]http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_....
Yours sincerely
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
p. 02 6271 5849
e. [5][DPMC request email]
[6]www.pmc.gov.au
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon,
Please see attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request with
the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – reference FOI/2014/125.
Regards
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
e. [1][email address]
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Williams,
Thank you for the opportunity to revise my request.
I wish to limit my request to briefings & ministerials available in the DPMC Slipstream database. I also wish to exclude documents after the appointments were announced.
I hope these limitations allow my request to proceed.
Yours sincerely,
Henare Degan
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Henare Degan
Thank you for your email message of 4 August 2014.
This is to advise that the decision maker in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is of the view that the scope of the revised request has been narrowed sufficiently to remove the practical refusal reasons and to allow processing of the revised request to continue.
The decision due date for notifying a decision is therefore, Sunday, 24 August 2014 (or next business day, Monday, 25 August 2014).
Regards,
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet e. [email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
Good morning,
Please see attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request with
the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – reference FOI/2014/125.
Regards
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
e. [1][email address]
[2]Description: cid:image001.png@01CFAD9F.9716E8A0
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear FOI Adviser,
I wish to request that all costs for the processing of this request be waived or reduced on the grounds that the release of this information is in the public interest.
These organisations are publicly funded by taxpayers and board appointments impact the health of the organisations in many ways. As such, the public interest argument is strongly in favour of disclosure of this information as there is limited information currently available about these appointments. Given the highly politicised nature of appointments at this time, transparency of this process is essential for informed public discussion.
Yours sincerely,
Henare Degan
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Henare Degan,
Please see attached the charges decision in relation to your FOI request
with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – reference
FOI/2014/125.
Regards,
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
e. [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear FOI,
I've just provided my payment details via phone to pay the deposit for this request.
Yours sincerely,
Henare Degan
Dear FOI,
I've just been called back to say that I need to provide my credit card details via unencrypted email or my request cannot be processed. I've also been told this is your standard practice.
As I explained on my call this is very concerning. A handy website by the Australian Government called "SCAMwatch" explains on its "Credit card scams" page:
>"Never send your personal, credit card or online account details through an email."
http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/inde...
I hope my request can proceed without needing to ignore this advice from the Government's own SCAMwatch website.
Yours sincerely,
Henare Degan
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Degan
I refer to your email below.
Thank you for providing your payment details. We will provide you with a receipt for the payment of the processing charge for your FOI request with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as soon as this is available.
As indicated in our letter of 20 August 2014 notifying of the estimate of the processing charge, we are writing to confirm that the Department has identified third party information relevant to your request. The Department has formed the view that it is appropriate to consult in the circumstances.
Under s 15(6) of the FOI Act, the statutory period for processing an FOI request is extended by 30 days in these situations. We advise that the timeframe for processing this request has been extended by 30 days in accordance with that provision. Subject to any other suspensions or extensions of time provided for under the FOI Act, the revised decision due date is now Wednesday, 17 December 2014.
If you require more information, please contact us.
Regards,
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet e. [email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Degan
I refer to the email below.
Please see attached receipt for payment of processing charge for your FOI request with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (deposit only).
Regards,
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet e. [email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
Our ref: FOI/2014/125
Dear Mr Degan
Please see attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request with
the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – reference FOI/2014/125.
Yours sincerely
FOI Adviser
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
e. [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Peter Timmins left an annotation ()
Henare, This issue got quite a workout in Senate Estimates for PM&C on Monday with questions raised by Senator Wong about various appointments. See http://bit.ly/1ta4TYa
PM&C weren't conceding much but contact with the PM"s Office was in accordance with 'routine', plenty of names were considered, and the appointments were all the Secretary's own doing despite some bemusement on the part of opposition senators about where the names of the two successful nominations came from.
She also raised in a few moments at the end of the session PM&C's handling of her FOI applications-you aren't alone in getting a runaround.
Cheers. Peter Timmins.