Dear Federal Court of Australia,

I request documents under the FOI Act.

Notices, decisions and documents issued under the FOI Act in response to this request can be sent to me by return email (through the Right to Know website).

It is my understanding that there has been an officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the New South Wales District Registry of the Federal Court of Australia (NSWDR) since at least 1 January 2010. The officer has, informally, been referred to as, among other things, the listings officer, listings manager, listings coordinator, senior court officer, listings and events manager or court support coordinator by people in the NSWDR.

Part 1

I would like access to any and all documents, from 1 January 2010 to the date of this request, that could reasonably be described as a formal position description of the work that the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR was, and is, required to do.

Any position descriptions would, or should, contain the group of duties that the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR was, and is, required to do. It may also contain the formal position titles of that officer, the classification of that officer (e.g. FCS5 or APS5) and the nature of that officer’s engagement (e.g. ongoing APS employee, non-ongoing APS employee).

Past 2

I would like access to the set of documents that, broadly speaking, correspond to the role evaluation report that would have been, or should have been, prepared when a vacancy first existed for someone to undertake the duties of the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR.

I would also like access to the set of documents, in existence from 1 January 2010 to the date of this request, that, broadly speaking, correspond to the role evaluation report that would have been, or should have been, prepared, and updated, in respect of the role undertaken by the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR.

Based on my understanding on what a role evaluation report should contain (that understanding is informed by the Role Evaluation Guidance and Tool, issued by the Australian Public Service Commission in 2014), please ensure that the documents furnished in response to Part 2 of this request contain the following information:

• job title;
• evaluation date;
• name of the person responsible for conducting the evaluation;
• name of the person responsible for any past role evaluations in respect of the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR;
• role status (new or existing);
• date of role creation;
• primary purposes / main objectives of the role;
• list of sources of information and evidence that has been used to inform the evaluation of the role of the person responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR;
• information about evaluation factors, including scores and explanations of rationale or evidence adopted, in respect of the following factors: knowledge application, accountability, scope and complexity, guidance, decision-making, problem solving, contacts and relationships, management responsibility, and resource accountability;
• the approval of the Agency Head or relevant delegate in respect of the classification level assigned to the role of the person responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR;
• the signature of the Agency Head or relevant delegate on the role evaluation report; and
• the date that the role evaluation report was signed.

In the event that the Agency Head or the Agency Head’s delegate in the Federal Court of Australia has, for some reason, refused to adopt the Australian Public Service Commission’s evaluation template to conduct role evaluations, please ensure that any and all documents relating to role evaluations in respect of duties undertaken by the person responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR, from 1 January 2010 to the date of this request, are granted access to. Even if the documents you have access to do not each contain the information that should be recorded on a role evaluation report prepared by a diligent public servant, please grant access to any and all documents relating to role evaluations in respect of duties undertaken by the person responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR, from 1 January 2010 to the date of this request. I will aggregate the information contained in those documents to form a complete picture of the role evaluation.

Part 3

A vacancy notice for the position of listings coordinator in the NSWDR was published in the Public Service Gazette. The relevant issue was issue number 47 of 2020. The relevant vacancy number was VN-0684533. The role was classified at the APS5 classification and the nature of engagement was set as ongoing. To the extent that the decision maker does not believe that the documents that are to be requested are covered by Parts 1 and 2 of this request, please grant access to the position description associated with vacancy VN-0684533, as well as the role evaluation report associated with vacancy VN-0684533.

If a role evaluation report was not prepared for vacancy VN-0684533, contrary to the appropriate practices that inform the way that an Agency Head or delegate should prepare evaluation reports, please provide access to any and all documents and records that shed light on the following information, in relation to role of listings coordinator:

• job title;
• evaluation date;
• name of the person responsible for conducting the evaluation for the listings coordinator role;
• name of the person responsible for any past role evaluations in respect of the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR;
• role status (new or existing);
• date of role creation;
• primary purposes / main objectives of the listing coordinator role;
• list of sources of information and evidence that has been used to inform the evaluation of the role of the listings coordinator;
• information about evaluation factors, including scores and explanations of rationale or evidence adopted, in respect of the following factors: knowledge application, accountability, scope and complexity, guidance, decision-making, problem solving, contacts and relationships, management responsibility, and resource accountability;
• the name and position of the person who approved the classification level assigned to the listings coordinator role;
• the date on which the relevant person approved the classification of the listings coordinator role.
• the name and position of the person who approved the nature of engagement (i.e. ongoing APS employee) in respect of the listings coordinator role; and
• the date on which the relevant person approved the nature of engagement of the listings coordinator role.

Part 4

Subject to what follows in the paragraph immediately below, I would like access to any and all vacancy notices, from 1 January 2010 to the date of this request, published in the Public Service Gazette in respect of the role of the officer responsible for publishing listings of proceedings in the NSWDR.

You do not need to provide me with access to vacancy VN-0684533, which was published in the Public Service Gazette no 47 of the year 2020.

Yours faithfully,
Dave