OFFICIAL

Reference:  PM/22/022

Dear Mr McMahon

The purpose of this email is to acknowledge the request you made to the
Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for access under the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (the Act).

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) provides
administrative support to the PMO for the processing of their Freedom of
Information (FOI) requests. We have forwarded your request to the PMO for
consideration. When corresponding with PM&C about this request please
include the reference number of PM/2022/022.

FOI Timeframes

Your request was received on 27 November 2022. The 30 day statutory period
for processing your request commenced from the day after it was received,
you should therefore expect a decision by 28 December 2022.

The processing period of 30 days may be extended in certain circumstances
and we will write to you separately regarding any extension of time.

Yours sincerely

Leisha

Coordinator | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country | One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box
6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600
e. [1][email address]  w. [2]pmc.gov.au

[3]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/

OFFICIAL

Reference: PM/22/022

Dear Mr McMahon

I refer to your FOI request of 27 November 2022, made to the Prime
Minister’s Office under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, in which you
sought access to:

The first document you received from any source whatsoever that contains
the term "vaccine mandate" from the date 1 December 2018 to the present.

The current due date for a decision on this request is 28 December 2022.

We write to seek your agreement to a 30 day extension of time under
section 15AA of the FOI Act, as regrettably, due to the holiday shut down
period, the Office is not in a position to finalise the decision by the
current due date. If you agree to the extension of time, the decision will
then be due on 27 January 2023. 

If you agree to this request, we would be grateful if you could confirm
via reply email by Friday 16 December 2022.

Yours sincerely,

Alicia

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country | One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box
6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600
e. [1][email address]  w. [2]pmc.gov.au

[3]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/

OFFICIAL

FOI/2022/351

Dear Mr McMahon,

Thank you for your email to the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) dated
27 November 2022, in which you made a request under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) in the following terms:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 I seek access to the first
document you received from any source whatsoever that contains the term
"vaccine mandate" from the date 1 December 2018 to the present.

Notification of transfer of FOI request

The FOI Act provides a mechanism to transfer a request to another agency
where the subject-matter of the request is more closely connected with the
functions of that agency than with those of the agency to which the
request is made (section 16(1)(b) of the FOI Act). This ensures that a
decision on the request is made by the most appropriate agency. As the
subject-matter of the documents you have requested is more closely
connected with the functions of the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet (PM&C) than with the functions of the PMO, your request has been
transferred in full to PM&C under section 16(1)(b) of the FOI Act.

We note that the processing time for your FOI request overlaps with the
departmental shutdown period from 23 December to 2 January 2022
(inclusive). Given this, we would like to seek your agreement to a 15-day
extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act.

Please confirm your agreement to the extension of time by replying to this
email by Friday 23 December 2022.

PM&C will be in touch regarding the processing of your request. Should
you wish to contact them, please do so by emailing [1][Prime Minister request email].  

Yours sincerely

Ruth

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country, One National Circuit  Barton  ACT  2600  |  PO Box
6500  CANBERRA  ACT  2600
e. [2][email address]  w. [3]pmc.gov.au

[4]cid:image001.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0[5]cid:image002.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0

[6]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Prime Minister request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://www.pmc.gov.au/
4. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
5. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...

Our reference: RQ22/05081

Agency reference: FOI/2022/351

Terence McMahon

Sent by email: [1][FOI #9619 email]

Extension of time application by Department Of The Prime Minister And
Cabinet

Dear Mr McMahon

I write to advise that on 23 December 2022 the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (the OAIC) received an application from
Department of The Prime Minister And Cabinet (the Department) for an
extension of time, to process your FOI request of 27 November 2022.

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.

Department has advised the OAIC that:

The applicant has requested the first document received by the Prime
Minister and/or PMC from any source containing a specific search term,
with a time frame between 2018 and present. FOI team members have had to
craft searches of emails and PDMS, attempting to find the first relevant
record in a broad time frame, using a trial and error approach. As such,
several iterations of searches have had to be requested. Further, there is
a high instance of staff members both in the FOI team and the IT/PDMS
teams currently on leave, presenting a slowdown in the ability to conduct
multiple searches. The available processing time for PM&C has also been
reduced, both by the delay in receiving transfer from the PMO and PM&C's
departmental shutdown period, which encompasses the decision due date.

The Department has requested an extension to 12 January 2023. 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 6 January 2023. 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 via
email at [3][email address]. Please quote OAIC reference: RQ22/05081 in
all correspondence.

Sincerely

Alistair B

[4][IMG]   Intake and Early Resolution Team

Freedom of Information Regulatory Group

Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner

GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [5]oaic.gov.au

1300 363 992  |  [6][email address]
[7][IMG] | [8][IMG] | [9][IMG] |   [10]Subscribe to OAICnet newsletter

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #9619 email]
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. mailto:[email address]
7. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
9. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
10. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

Our reference: RQ22/05081

Agency reference: FOI/2022/351

Terence McMahon

By email: [1][FOI #9619 email]
CC: [2][Prime Minister request email]

Extension of time under s 15AB

Dear Mr McMahon

Please find attached an FOI Extension of time decision relating to your
FOI Request with the Department of OM and Cabinet, the Department is
copied in to this correspondence.

Sincerely

Alistair B

[3][IMG]   Intake and Early Resolution Team

Freedom of Information Regulatory Group

Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner

GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [4]oaic.gov.au

1300 363 992  |  [5][email address]
[6][IMG] | [7][IMG] | [8][IMG] |   [9]Subscribe to OAICnet newsletter

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #9619 email]
2. mailto:[Prime Minister request email]
3. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. mailto:[email address]
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
7. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
9. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

OFFICIAL

FOI/2022/351

Dear Mr McMahon

Please find attached the decision regarding your request under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982, as well as the document being released to you.

Yours sincerely

Sophie

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country, One National Circuit  Barton  ACT  2600  |  PO Box
6500  CANBERRA  ACT  2600
e. [1][email address]  w. [2]pmc.gov.au

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0[4]cid:image002.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0

[5]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information 
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or 
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/
3. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...