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 Squiggle

Freedom of Information Request – FOI 24-25/104

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):

I request the following documents under the FOI Act, for any departmental
official or agency head who currently holds membership to either Qantas'
Chairman's Lounge or Virgin's Beyond lounge:

1. For each individual holding membership, detail of the membership they
hold (ie. the airline they hold a membership for), their total number of
flights and total expenditure, by airline, for the most recent available
12 month period (only flights funded by the department)

2. Any documents that detail any assessments made as to the 'estimated
value' of these memberships (including those made by the individuals, or
the department).

3. Any documents that detail any reasons for accepting (or declining)
invitations to these exclusive airline lounges.

4. Any documents that are requests for advice from these individuals, or
advice given to these individuals, that touch on whether the memberships
are in accordance with applicable policies in relation to conflict of
interest, gifts, etc.

Request for assistance/withdrawal of request

Estimates of government expenditure are referred to Senate committees as
part of the annual budget cycle. This opportunity to examine the
operations of government plays a key role in the parliamentary scrutiny of
the executive.

Government portfolios are spread across eight Senate committees for the
consideration of estimates. The “Finance and Public Administration”
committee considers Finance expenditure. Reports, transcripts and videos
on past proceedings can be found on the committee estimates pages:
[1]Finance and Public Administration – Parliament of Australia

Finance has previously answered a similar Senate Question on Notice from
Senator Pocock (F146) in the 2024-25 Supplementary budget estimates. We
have attached the question and answer for your reference. If you consider
the attachment and response meets your request, we invite you to withdraw
your request.

We kindly ask that you reply to this email and either:

o Withdraw your request, or
o Request a formal decision letter.

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 3 February 2025. The statutory
period for processing your request commences from the day after Finance
received your request and a decision is due on Wednesday 5 March 2025.

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 [2]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

References

Visible links
1. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus...
2. https://www.finance.gov.au/about-us/free...

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 Squiggle

Freedom of Information Request – FOI 24-25/104

Thank you for confirming the Senate Question on Notice from Senator Pocock
(F146) in the 2024-25 Supplementary budget estimates satisfies part 1 of
your request, and agreeing to withdraw it.

We will now process the remaining parts 2, 3 and 4 of your request:

2.  Any documents that detail any assessments made as to the 'estimated
value' of these memberships (including those made by the individuals, or
the department).

3. Any documents that detail any reasons for accepting (or declining)
invitations to these exclusive airline lounges.

4. Any documents that are requests for advice from these individuals, or
advice given to these individuals, that touch on whether the memberships
are in accordance with applicable policies in relation to conflict of
interest, gifts, etc.

Request for assistance

We seek further clarity regarding the time period of the documents you are
seeking. We have interpreted the time period of your request as the most
recent 12-month period, that is 3 February 2024 – 3 February 2025?

We kindly ask that you reply this email by to confirm the time period, or
propose an alternate time period. Please note that if we do not receive a
response from you, we will proceed to process your request on the most
recent 12-month period.

Thank you for your assistance.

Kind regards

FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch

Business Enabling Services

Department of Finance

A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603

show quoted sections

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

Good afternoon Mr Squiggle

Thank you for your response. We are writing to you to confirm our
understanding of your request, as the subsequent emails seem to have
reduced the scope and then further expanded the scope.

The wording of your request dated 3 February 2025 is reproduced below:

I request the following documents under the FOI Act, for any departmental
official or agency head who currently holds membership to either Qantas'
Chairman's Lounge or Virgin's Beyond lounge:

1. For each individual holding membership, detail of the membership they
hold (ie. the airline they hold a membership for), their total number of
flights and total expenditure, by airline, for the most recent available
12 month period (only flights funded by the department)

2. Any documents that detail any assessments made as to the 'estimated
value' of these memberships (including those made by the individuals, or
the department).

3. Any documents that detail any reasons for accepting (or declining)
invitations to these exclusive airline lounges.

4. Any documents that are requests for advice from these individuals, or
advice given to these individuals, that touch on whether the memberships
are in accordance with applicable policies in relation to conflict of
interest, gifts, etc.

On 10 February 2025, Finance emailed you and provided you a copy of the
Senate Question on Notice from Senator Pocock (F146) in the 2024-25
Supplementary budget estimates, as attached.

On 11 February 2025, you advised:

…The information provided to the QoN sufficiently answers part 1 of my
request so I am happy to remove that from scope of this request.

If you could please continue to process points 2-4 of my request that
would be greatly appreciated.

On 17 February 2025, Finance emailed you and confirmed that part 1 of your
request was now withdrawn and that we will now process the remaining parts
2, 3 and 4 of your request. Finance asked for confirmation that the time
period sought is the most recent 12-month period, that is 3 February 2024
– 3 February 2025.

This time period was suggested as your request relates to any departmental
officer of agency head who “currently holds membership”. Therefore, we
understand your request is for the current Secretary – Jenny Wilkison, or
the current Deputy Secretaries Cath Patterson (Budget Group), Grant
Lovelock (Business Enabling Services), Richard Windeyer (Commercial Group)
or Nathan Williamson (Governance and Resource Management). We have
included the former Deputy Secretary of Business Enabling Services Andrew
Jaggers in the list, as part 1 of the request referenced the “most recent
available 12 month period”, to which Andrew Jaggers would have been in
scope.

We note that membership to either Qantas' Chairman's Lounge or Virgin's
Beyond lounge is published annually on the Department of Finance Gifts and
Benefits register ([1]Department of Finance Gifts and Benefits 2023-24 |
Department of Finance). The estimated value of these memberships is listed
as unknown, as invitation to the lounge is by invitation only.

As such, we are proposing to process your request for documents of
departmental official or agency head (in Finance’s case, the Secretary and
Deputy Secretaries) who currently hold memberships. Therefore, we have
understood your scope in respect of Part 2, 3 and 4 of the request as
follows:

2. Any documents that detail any assessments made as to the 'estimated
value' of these [current] memberships (including those made by the
individuals, or the department).

3. Any documents that detail any reasons for accepting (or declining)
invitations [for these current memberships].

4. Any documents that are requests for advice from these individuals, or
advice given to these individuals, that touch on whether the [current]
memberships are in accordance with applicable policies in relation to
conflict of interest, gifts, etc.

Can you please confirm by COB Tuesday 25 February 2025 that you are
comfortable with our interpretation of your scope?

Kind regards

FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch

Business Enabling Services

Department of Finance

A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603

show quoted sections

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 Squiggle

Thank you for your response and agreement to confirm the scope below. 

Extension of Time

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 today, 5 March 2025.

As a former Deputy Secretary was captured in the request, we have
requested IT to run a keyword search of his Outlook and folders. The FOI
team are now in the process of reviewing the documents, noting there are a
significant amount of documents that are not in scope due to the broad
search terms to ensure everything is captured. Once the documents are
reviewed, we will consider whether consultation responses from a third
party is required.

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 15 days
with a new due date Thursday 20 March 2025.  

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 Thursday 20 March 2025; 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 as soon as possible. Apologies for the short
turnaround time.

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

show quoted sections

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

Our reference:            RQ25/01132

Agency reference:    FOI 24-25/104

Agency name              Department of Finance
By Email:                        [email address]

Name                              Mr Squiggle
By Email:                       
[FOI #12808 email]

Extension of time under s 15AB

Dear Parties,

Please find attached an extension of time decision relating to the above
referenced FOI request.

Regards,

[1][IMG]   Andriana DeIeso

Review Adviser

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001

E [2][email address]
 
I am available Tuesday and Wednesday.   

Please note: The OAIC has revised its IC review procedures from 1 July
2024. For more information about these revised procedures, including new
resources to assist applicants and respondents, see our webpage:
[3]Information Commissioner reviews | OAIC
The OAIC acknowledges Traditional Custodians of Country across
Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters and
communities. We pay our respect to First Nations people,
cultures and Elders past and present.  

[4]Subscribe to Information Matters

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
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References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
4. https://www.oaic.gov.au/engage-with-us/n...

OFFICIAL

Dear Mr Squiggle

Please see attached a decision letter together with the documents released
to you in relation to your FOI request (our reference FOI 24-25/104).

Kind regards

FOI Officer | Legal and Assurance Branch

Business Enabling Services

Department of Finance

A: One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603