Senator Babet Electorate Office Move
Dear Department of Finance,
This is a Freedom of Information Request for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
I seek access to the following:
(a) Documents and correspondence relating to the moving of Senator Babet's electorate office (from the CBD to Narre Warren) from 21 May 2022
(b) The enumerated costs of the move of Senator Babet's electorate office from the CBD to Narre Warren.
Yours faithfully,
Alex Pentland
Thank you for your email, which has been forwarded to the Department’s FOI
Team for their consideration. A member of the FOI Team will respond to
your email in the next couple of days.
Kind regards
FOI Coordinator
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr/Ms Pentland
Freedom of Information Request – FOI 23-24/008
Thank you for your email to the Department of Finance (Finance) requesting
access to the following documents under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (FOI Act):
(a) Documents and correspondence relating to the moving of Senator Babet's
electorate office (from the CBD to Narre Warren) from 21 May 2022
(b) The enumerated costs of the move of Senator Babet's electorate office
from the CBD to Narre Warren.
Request for assistance
The current scope of your request captures a large volume of pages.
We suggest narrowing the scope of your request by providing more
information regarding the documents you seek, for example:
o Correspondence from specific people, providing the names of those
people
o Further details of the types of documents (excluding emails) you seek
o Providing more detail on the types of “relocation” costs, is this the
cost of the physical move of the office? If not please provide further
information.
We kindly ask that you reply this email by providing further details
regarding the type of documents that you are seeking by COB Wednesday 2
August 2023.
Please note that if we do not receive a response from you, we are required
under the FOI Act to expend additional resources to process your request.
We appreciate your assistance in this matter.
General FOI matters
Your request was received by Finance on 14 July 2023. The statutory period
for processing your request commences from the day after Finance received
your request and a decision is due on Monday 14 August 2023.
The processing period may be extended if we need to consult third parties,
impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.
Liability to pay a charge
You will be notified of any charges in relation to your request as soon as
possible, before we process any requested documents or impose a final
charge.
Publication
As required by the FOI Act, any documents provided to you under the FOI
Act will be published on our [1]disclosure log, unless an exemption
applies or the documents are characterised as containing personal
information. Documents will be published the next working day after they
are released to you.
Policy to exclude junior officer contact details, signatures and mobile
phone numbers
Finance has adopted a policy to generally exclude from any documents
released under FOI, the names and contact details of junior staff (non-SES
officers) and staff employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act
1984 (adviser level and below). Finance has also adopted a policy to
exclude signatures and mobile phone numbers from any documents released
under FOI (unless publicly available). Finance’s preference is to reach
agreement with FOI applicants to exclude these details from the scope of
the request. Where there is no objection, the names and contact details of
junior officers, as well as any signatures and mobile phone numbers
appearing in identified documents, will be redacted under section 22 of
the FOI Act on the basis that these details are irrelevant to the request.
Please contact the FOI Team on the below contact details if you wish to
discuss your request.
Kind regards
FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [email address] on: 25/07/2023 11:17:55 AM
References
Visible links
1. https://www.finance.gov.au/about-us/free...
Dear FOI Requests,
I thank the Department for their reply, the purpose of this reply is toi fall in subsequently narrow the preview of this request for it to proceed.
For the purposes of "Correspondence from specific people, providing the names of those
people", I narrow this request to the correspondents involving the following people: Ralph Babet, Ralph Babet's Chief of Staff. Craig Kelly, and Any Individual acting as a representative of the United Australia Party
For the purpose of "Further details of the types of documents (excluding emails) you seek", as well as emails, any digital or electronic communication relating to the office relocation, any minutes which reference the relocation, and any specific bills or financial documents circulated that specifically relate to the costs.
For the purposes of "Providing more detail on the types of “relocation” costs, is this the
cost of the physical move of the office? If not please provide further
information.", primarily this is the request of just the physical move and moving of equipment, resources, and other features.
Yours sincerely,
I hope this has provided some clarification to aid the request.
Alex Pentland
Thank you for your email, which has been forwarded to the Department’s FOI
Team for their consideration. A member of the FOI Team will respond to
your email in the next couple of days.
Kind regards
FOI Coordinator
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr/s Pentland
Please see attached a request consultation notice in relation to your FOI
request (our reference FOI 23-24/008).
Kind regards
FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [email address] on: 30/07/2023 6:33:01 PM
Dear FOI Requests,
Thank you for your update, and for providing me with a practical response explaining your decision.
As you've given me the chance to narrow and clarify the request, I was wondering if you could provide me with some reasonable assistance or reasonable advice in how I might narrow a request so that it isn't too voluminous and does still allow for the kind of services the FOI act generally allows?
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
Thank you for your email, which has been forwarded to the Department’s FOI
Team for their consideration. A member of the FOI Team will respond to
your email in the next couple of days.
Kind regards
FOI Coordinator
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Pentland
Thank you for your email (attached) and response to the letter. Please see
our reply below and a suggestion for reducing the scope of documents
identified.
The large number of documents identified as in scope of your request are
primarily in response to the first part of your question. Each of these
documents will require a significant amount of time consulting with
multiple third parties and redacting exempt information.
As such we suggest the following amended scope:
Physical relocation expenses incurred from 1 May 2022 to 1
May 2023 as a result of Senator Babet's electorate office move.
We kindly request that you please reply by email if you agree to the
amended scope by COB Friday 10 August 2023.
Please contact the FOI team if you have any questions.
FOI Officer
Legal and Assurance Branch
Department of Finance
E: [1][email address]
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [FOI #10475 email] on: 8/08/2023
11:15:22 AM
Dear FOI Requests,
Thank you for that reply.
Given the surprisingly large amount of documents encompassed and your suggestion, I agree to rephrase and narrow my request to the following:
"Physical relocation expenses incurred from 1 May 2022 to 1
May 2023 as a result of Senator Babet's electorate office move"
Thank you for being diligent here.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
Thank you for your email, which has been forwarded to the Department’s FOI
Team for their consideration. A member of the FOI Team will respond to
your email in the next couple of days.
Kind regards
FOI Coordinator
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Pentland
Thank you for your email and agreeing to the amended scope.
As we will now be conducting third party consultation for your request. As provided for under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, the processing period has been extended by 30 calendar days to allow for this consultation. As such, a decision is currently now due to you by Thursday 14 September 2023.
If you have any questions regarding the consultation process or your request more generally, please contact our FOI Team by reply email.
Kind regards
FOI Officer
Legal and Assurance Branch
Department of Finance
E: [email address]
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [email address] on: 10/08/2023 2:38:22 PM
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Pentland
We are writing to notify you that Finance will not be in a position to
finalise a decision in relation to your FOI request by the current due
date of 4 September 2023 to allow for the finalisation of third-party
consultation.
Section 15AA of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 provides that an
applicant can consent to an extension of time up to 30 calendar days.
Finance seeks your agreement to extend the processing period by 7 days
with a new due date of 11 September 2023.
If you consent to the extension, Finance will notify the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) of the extension, which is part
of Finance’s reporting requirements.
We kindly ask that you reply by either:
1. Consenting to an extension of time to 11 September 2023; or
2. Consenting to an extension of time for a date less than that requested
by Finance; or
3. Refusing to grant an extension of time.
We kindly seek your response by 25 August 2023.
If you would like to discuss this email, or your matter more generally,
please contact the FOI Team.
Kind regards
FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [email address] on: 22/08/2023 1:10:37 PM
Dear FOI Requests,
I apologise greatly for not replying to this email within the due time. i had clicked the notification at work and not responded at the time and forgot about it.
I intended to reply that I consented to the proposed extension, and any further extension required. Given this has now lapsed, if possible, I agree to allow for this to be conducted at a later date.
If this matter has been wound up for the delay, I apologise and will consider this request independently at a later day.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
Thank you for your email, which has been forwarded to the Department’s FOI
Team for their consideration. A member of the FOI Team will respond to
your email in the next couple of days.
Kind regards
FOI Coordinator
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Pentland
Thank you for your email. As we did not hear back from you, we applied for an extension through the OAIC, please see attached email for information.
Kind regards
FOI Officer
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [email address] on: 20/09/2023 10:16:52 AM
OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Pentland
Please see attached a decision letter together with the documents released
to you in relation to your FOI request (our reference FOI 23-24/008).
Kind regards
FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch
Business Enabling Services
Department of Finance
A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603
Classification: OFFICIAL
Classified by: [email address] on: 6/10/2023 2:57:51 PM