Statistical reality
Dear NSW Office of State Revenue,
What percentage of all infringement notices for 2016, as issued by NSWPolice, were issued to:
1.Indigenous Australians?
2.Homeless?
3.Welfare recipients and Health Card Holders?
Of these, what percentage were challenged in Court?
Of these, what percentage had the infringement overturned?
Further, what percentage for all NSW Police issued infringements went to Court? And what percentage of these were withdrawn by or a finding made against the Police Prosecutor?
I make this request per GIPA 2009 and believe it is in the public's interest, given the statistical information highlighted in SDRO letter proforma.
Yours faithfully,
Patsy Brogan
Dear Ms Brogan,
Thank you for your request to access information held by Revenue NSW, which is division of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI).
Section 41(1)(c) of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act) requires that for a formal access application to be valid it must be accompanied by a fee of $30.
In addition, section 41(1)(d) requires a postal address.
In order for me to validate your request can you please provide the above information.
Payment can be arranged by either of the following methods:
1. Payment by EFT: please use the following details
Subject description: Your surname - GIPA application fee
Pay: Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
ABN: 81 913 830 179
Bank: Westpac
BSB: 032 001
Account number: 203164
2. Payment by cheque or money order: payable to Department of Finance, Services and Innovation and posted to the address below
Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
GIPA and Privacy team
Level 22, McKell Building, 2-24 Rawson Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000
More information about how to request information from DFSI can be found on our website at: https://www.finance.nsw.gov.au/accessing...
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me via the details below.
Thanks
Luke Hollands
Advisor, Ministerial Services
Office of the Secretary
Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
GIPA & PRIVACY HOTLINE: (02) 9619 8672
e [OSR request email] | www.finance.nsw.gov.au
Level 22 West, McKell Building, 2-24 Rawson Place, Sydney NSW 2000
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
Thankyou. So the information is available. And your Department requires it to be a formal request?
Unable or unwilling to respond to an informal request, or waive the fee being a matter of public interest?
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear Patsy Brogan
Thank you for your further enquiry into the GIPA process. We have looked
into your request to see if a formal application would have been required
and can advise of the following -
Revenue NSW does not retain or report on customers’ ethnicity,
socioeconomic status or personal situations like homelessness, therefore
the statistics you are requesting do not exist.
The statistical information Revenue NSW provides on Penalty Infringement
Notices is of a general and therefore educational nature.
Also your request regarding statistics on “what percentage for all NSW
Police issued infringements went to Court? And what percentage of these
were withdrawn by or a finding made against the Police Prosecutor?” – this
information is not held or reported on by Revenue NSW therefore is not
able to be provided.
We have looked into this with Revenue NSW, and I can confirm that DFSI
does not hold the information you are requesting, and as such there would
be no benefit to you in lodging a formal application.
I trust this information clarifies any questions you may have.
Regards,
Luke Hollands
Advisor, Ministerial Services
Office of the Secretary
Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
GIPA & PRIVACY HOTLINE: (02) 9619 8672
e [1][OSR request email] | [2]www.finance.nsw.gov.au
Level 22 West, McKell Building, 2-24 Rawson Place, Sydney NSW 2000
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
I am confused.
Your infringement notices quote staridical information which clearly set out the improbability of an alternative if challenged in Court.
On what basis are these stsrisics derived?
Given the are part if the infringement notice, endorse by your Agency, indicates statistics are formulated and if public interest.
Can you confirm if your Agency complies statistics?
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
Further,
Your website has 'Financial Hardship' fact sheets, two (2( examples.
This identifies lower social-economic groups.
Your Agency would have a log of those fines paid per Financial Hardship applications per those paid up front per those challenged.
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear Patsy Brogan
Thank you for your further email.
As we have previously advised DFSI does not hold information in the categories you are requesting.
I note you have accessed the Revenue NSW website and I encourage you to contact Revenue NSW on 1300 655 805 also for further information about financial hardship and the options available to recipients of infringements.
Regards,
Luke Hollands
Advisor, Ministerial Services
Office of the Secretary
Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
GIPA & PRIVACY HOTLINE: (02) 9619 8672
e [OSR request email] | www.finance.nsw.gov.au
Level 22 West, McKell Building, 2-24 Rawson Place, Sydney NSW 2000
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
NSW Revenue is a Division under DFSI. Correct?
NSW 'Penalty Reminder Notice' has clearly written on it statistics, ie:
What if I want to dispute or seek leniency for a penalty?
Fact: Less that 4 percent of penalties result in the recipent not needing to pay the penalty
and:
What if I wan to have the penalty decided in court?
Fact: Less than 1 percent of penalties result in a not guilty verdict in court
Where do these 'facts' come from?
What other statistics are formulated, held and used by NSW Revenue / DFSI?
So, I reiterate my inquiry being in the public interest. Given statistical facts are quoted, they must be based on data you provided, and data you validated. Otherwise they are misleading.
What are these statistics based on?
What period do they relate to?
How often are they updated?
And what is the average cost in prosecuting matters brought before the courts? And the average costs awarded against DFSI/ Renenue for the said statistic 1% overturned?
Given the lower %, suggests to me that the cost in time and expertise exceeds the fine, and prodominately infringements are issued and paid by those with lower economic means.
Getting back to my question of how many people issued with infringements seek and succeed in obtain flexibility per Financial Hardship criteria, which your Agency, by its very busy, would handle and tabulate.
And this is ALL in the public interst
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
Is there an obstacle in responding to an informal request, being in the public interest and transparency, given your Agency's unabashed usage of statistical informal that appears to promote revenue collection?
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
Why does the information you publish differs from the NSW Ombudsman's Report 2002 "On the spot justice" ?
https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/news-and-pub...
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear GIPA-DFSI,
Do you require some funds to makes this happen?
Section 8 of the GIPA Act provides:
(1) An agency is authorised to release government information held by it to a person in response to an informal request by the person (that is, a request that is not an access application) unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure of the information.
(2) An agency can release government information in response to an informal request subject to any reasonable conditions that the agency thinks fit to impose.
(3) An agency cannot be required to disclose government information pursuant to an informal request and cannot be required to consider an informal request for government information.
(4) An agency can decide by what means information is to be released in response to an informal request.
(5) An agency can facilitate public access to government information contained in a record by deleting matter from a copy of the record to be released in response to an informal request if inclusion of the matter would otherwise result in there being an overriding public interest against disclosure of the record.
(6) The functions of an agency under this section may only be exercised by or with the authority (given either generally or in a particular case) of the principal officer of the agency.
Yours sincerely,
Patsy Brogan
Dear Patsy,
On 11 January 2018 you submitted a request to access information held by
Revenue NSW, which is a division of the Department of Finance, Services
and Innovation (DFSI).
Your request to access information was not a valid request as per section
41(1) of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA
Act). You were advised of this by Luke Hollands on 11 January 2018 and
also provided with advice and assistance as to how you could submit a
valid request.
In order to provide you with additional advice and assistance, Mr Hollands
also liaised with Revenue NSW regarding the specific information you have
requested.
Mr Hollands received confirmation that Revenue NSW does not hold the
information you have requested. On 17 January 2018 Mr Hollands explained
to you why Revenue NSW does not hold the information, and therefore it
would not be of any assistance if you were to submit a formal access
application. This advice was repeated on 18 January 2018.
You still have the right to submit a formal access application under the
GIPA Act, however this must meet the conditions of section 41(1) of the
Act (as advised by Mr Hollands on 11 January 2018).
As per section 8(3) of the GIPA Act, an agency cannot be required to
consider an informal request for government information. However, in this
case we have considered your request and provided a response. i.e. that
DFSI does not hold the information you have requested.
We will keep your file open until 6 March 2018, to allow you time to
submit a valid formal access application under section 41(1) of the GIPA
Act as requested by Mr Hollands in his email dated 11 January 2018. If we
do not receive a valid formal application by 6 March 2018, we will close
your file.
Any other correspondence that does not constitute a request to access
information will be filed without a response.
Regards
Hannah Stephenson
A/Senior Advisor, Ministerial Services (GIPA and Privacy)
Office of the Secretary | Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
GIPA & PRIVACY HOTLINE: 02 9619 8672
E [1][OSR request email] | [2]www.finance.nsw.gov.au
[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D1FEBD.7748D170
Please consider the environment before printing this email
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
The applicant has not told Right to Know the status of this request and I have been asked to update the status.
Note 1: Mostly I classify a response like this one to say "clarification requested" because the agency has told the applicant that some more information (or money!) is needed before the request will be processed. With this request, I have put the response in the category of "refused" because it is some time since the agency responded and the applicant does not appear to have made a follow-up. It is possible that a follow-up has been made by the ordinary post or by private email but Right to Know has not heard anything about this. Even if the applicant did not follow-up agency questions, it does not mean that the agency will refuse the request when an application is made in the correct (required) manner.
Note 2: Although an application under the Freedom of Information Act 1983 of the Commonwealth of Australia does not require an application fee, this is not the case with applications in the states and territories of Australia. Then an applicant must usually pay a fee, or the request is not valid. Also, the Commonwealth agencies might demand payment of a fee to cover extra processing costs. If the fee is not paid, the request will not be processed.