Dear To

The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the department)
has received your Freedom of Information requests of 15 January 2021 and
17 January 2021 (attached).

This correspondence is to acknowledge receipt of your requests.

Combining requests and clarifying scope

As your two requests are substantially similar, the department has
combined your requests and will process them together. We understand the
scope of your combined request to be:

“all documents with dates of third-party (public)
enquiries/concerns/allegations regarding conflicts of interests in the
incubator support initiative, excluding:

·       third party information (other than the content of
enquiries/concerns/allegations;

·       staff names; and

·       duplicate documents.

In your request received on 17 January 2021, you indicated that the
department 'may exclude … replies and redact everything except the
dates'.  Could you please clarify that you are only seeking the dates of
any responses by the department to third party enquiries, concerns and
allegations, and not the responses themselves?

Personal information – exclusion of staff details

For documents that fall within the scope of a request, it is the practice
of the department to withhold:

o the names, signatures and contact details of junior staff; That is:

o Commonwealth staff who are not in the Senior Executive Service
(SES); and
o Ministerial staff below the level of Chief of Staff; and

o the mobile phone numbers of SES officers.

As noted above, we understand that you have excluded staff names, as well
as third party information, from the scope of your request. Could you
please confirm that you are not seeking any 'personal information' (i.e.
the names and contact details of any staff or third parties, or
information that could reasonably identify an individual)? Providing this
confirmation may enable a more timely and cost effective processing of
your request.

If you are seeking access to particular types of personal information,
could you please specify.

Request for extension of time

Currently a decision is due to you by 14 February 2021. However, the
department has faced unavoidable delays in processing your Freedom of
Information request.

To assist in the processing your request, we seek your agreement to a 30
day extension under section 15AA of the FOI Act. If you agree to this
extension, the department will notify the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner of the extension of time, and the decision on
your request would then be due to you on or before 16 March 2021.

Responding to this email

Could you please confirm your agreement to the extension of time request,
and clarify the scope of your request, at your earliest convenience but no
later than Tuesday 9 February 2021.

If you have any questions, please contact the FOI Team by email at
[email address]. 

Kind regards

FOI Team

Legal, Audit and Assurance | Corporate & Digital

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601 | [1][Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources request email]

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Our reference: RQ21/00383

Agency reference: LEX67939

Mr To Nguyen

Sent by email: [1][FOI #7018 email]  

Extension of time application by the Department of Industry, Science,
Energy and Resources

Dear Mr Nguyen

I write to advise that on 15 February 2021 the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (the OAIC) received an application from the
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the Department) for
an extension of time, to process your FOI request of 15 January 2021.

The Department has applied for an extension of time under s 15AB of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) because your request is considered
to be complex.

The Department has advised the OAIC that:

·       the Department contacted you to informally clarify the scope of
your request and sought a s 15AA extension of time for 30 days, you
clarified the scope but declined the extension request

·       the Department advise that additional searches are currently
underway with the assistance of IT support

·       the Department advise that it considers your request to be complex
due to the large volume of requests received since June 2020 about similar
subject matter which has resulted in the Department devoting a significant
amount of resourcing to processing these requests

·       this includes additional time in conducting document searches,
document retrieval, engaging in consultations, commencing document review
and as a result has led to unavoidable delays in processing your request

·       the Department advise this subject matter relates to sensitive
material which may be contained within requested documents and require
third party consultations

·       additional external assistance has been sought by the Department
to process these requests and advise your request is in the advanced
stages of processing, and

·       additional time is required to finalise additional searches,
review documents, determine if third party consultations are required and
finalise the decision.

The Department has requested an extension to 2 March 2021. I will take any
comments you may have to make into account when deciding the application.

Please respond to this email by close of business 18 February 2021. If I
do not hear from you by this date, the decision maker will make a decision
on the basis of the information provided to me by the Department. 

You will be notified of the decision once the matter has been finalised.

Further information about extension of time requests may be found on our
website at [2]Extensions of time.

Contact

If you have any questions regarding this email please contact me on (02)
9284 9847 or via email [3][email address]. Please quote OAIC
reference number at the top of this email in all correspondence. 

Yours Sincerely

[4][IMG]   Jasmin Clarke  |  Assistant
Review and Investigation
Advisor

Freedom of information

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [5]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9284 9847  | 
[6][email address]
[10]Subscribe [11]Subscribe to
[7]Facebook | [8]LinkedIn | [9]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #7018 email]
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
5. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
6. mailto:[email address]
7. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
8. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
9. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
11. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...

Our reference: RQ21/00383

Agency reference: LEX67939

Mr To Nguyen

Sent by email: [1][FOI #7018 email]  

Extension of time under s 15AB

Dear Mr Nguyen

Please find attached a decision of today’s date for an extension of time
from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.

Sincerely

[2][IMG]   Jasmin Clarke  |  Assistant
Review and Investigation
Advisor

Freedom of information

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [3]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9284 9847  | 
[4][email address]
[8]Subscribe [9]Subscribe to
[5]Facebook | [6]LinkedIn | [7]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #7018 email]
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
4. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
6. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
7. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
9. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...

Dear To

Please find attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request of 15
January 2021.

Should you have any queries regarding this matter, please contact the FOI
team.

Regards

FOI Team

Legal, Audit and Assurance | Corporate & Digital

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

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