Request for mobile communications via mobile applications
Ben Fairless made this Freedom of Information request to Minister for Communications as part of a batch sent to 10 authorities
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Minister for Communications,
Can you please provide a copy of all inbound and outbound chats in the 7 days prior to this request that was sent or received from the minister using any of the below applications:
- WhatsApp
- Facebook Messneger
- Signal
- Telegram
- Grindr
- Scruff
- Tinder
- Email Accounts without a .gov.au email address?
Please initially process these requests informally. I understand the AG advised the senate that the communications were "trivial" so I don't anticipate any exemptions being applied. If the request can't be processed informally, please treat it as a formal FOI request.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Fairless
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Fairless
Freedom of Information Request
Receipt is acknowledged of your email, received by the Office of the
Minister for Communications and the Arts on 19 October 2016, seeking
access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to:
“a copy of all inbound and outbound chats in the 7 days prior to this
request that was sent or received from the minister using any of the below
applications:
- Facebook Messneger
- Signal
- Telegram
- Grindr
- Scruff
- Tinder
- Email Accounts without a .gov.au email address?
Please initially process these requests informally. I understand the AG
advised the senate that the communications were "trivial" so I don't
anticipate any exemptions being applied. If the request can't be processed
informally, please treat it as a formal FOI request.”
The statutory period for processing your FOI request is 30 days, which
commenced from the date it was received.
Please contact me at [1][email address] if you have any
queries.
Yours sincerely
Luke Tobin
Adviser
Office of Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield
Minister for Communications | Minister for the Arts
Manager of Government Business in the Senate | Liberal Senator for
Victoria
M1.46 | Parliament House | CANBERRA ACT 2600
Canberra: 02 6277 7480 | Melbourne: 03 9660 6390 | [mobile number]
[2]www.mitchfifield.com | [3]www.facebook.com/senatorfifield |
[4]www.twitter.com/senatorfifield
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. file:///tmp/www.mitchfifield.com
3. http://www.facebook.com/senatorfifield
4. http://www.twitter.com/senatorfifield
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Fairless
Please find attached a response to your Freedom of Information request of
19 October 2016.
Regards
Office of the Minister for Communications
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended
recipient(s)
and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the
intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy
all
copies of the original message.
This message has been content scanned by the Axway MailGate.
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Dear Office of the Minister for Communications,
The process to determine if I have these apps installed on my mobile device took all of 5 minutes. This can be done (on an iPhone device) by acquiring the device, and swiping across each "home screen" on the device to determine if the relevant icon is present. With respect to the last item on my list, as the Minister's Chief of Staff, I would assume you know if the Minister uses a private email server to conduct Government business.
The reason you say this is unreasonable is because you would need to assess each and every message. I note the OAIC Guidelines state that "Poor record keeping or an inefficient filing system would not of themselves provide grounds for a claim that identifying or locating documents would be a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources."
You have also not advised if the Minster A) uses any of the platforms listed or B) how many messages are there. If the Minister only used one of the platforms and sent 10 messages (for example) how in the world could this be considered an unreasonble diversion of resources?!
I'm confused about how I can limit the scope of my request. I've kept it to a very short time frame and limited the scope of applications. I also note that the Attorney-General says that communication would be "Unremarkable". Can you offer a suggestion about how this request can be narrowed?
Yours sincerely,
Ben Fairless
Thank you for your email to the office of Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield,
Minister for Communications and Minister for the Arts.
Your correspondence has been received and will be given early attention.
If the matter is urgent please contact the Ministerial Office on (02) 6277
7480.
If the matter relates to the Minister’s role as Senator for Victoria it
will be forwarded to his Electorate Office which can be contacted on (03)
9584 2455.
