Supplementary Budget Estimates topics
Dear Department of Finance,
This is a request under the FOI Act.
Can you please provide the topics list for briefs created in preparation for the additional estimates hearing of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee in February 2016.
I ask that all fees in relation to this request be waived because the release of the documents is in the public interest. The documents help identity the most important policy areas within the department's responsibilities.
Yours faithfully,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information section of the
Department of Finance (Finance). We have received your email and will
endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.
You may view Finance’s Freedom of Information procedures and processes on
[1]http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
Further information relating to Freedom of Information can be found on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s [2]website.
[3]Signature blocks-blue bar.jpg
Freedom of Information
Legal Services Branch
Department of Finance
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
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UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Gothe-Snape,
Freedom of Information Request – FOI 16/40
Thank you for your email to the Department of Finance (Finance) requesting
access to the following under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act).
... the topics list for briefs created in preparation for the additional
estimates hearing of the Senate Finance and Public Administration
Legislation Committee in February 2016.
The statutory period for processing your request commences from the day
after Finance received your request. Your request was received by Finance
on 14 March 2016. 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 within one working day after
they are released to you.
Policy to exclude junior officer contact details
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’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 are 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.
Regards, Kira
[2]Department of Finance and Deregulation
FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
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1. http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/disclosure...
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Gothe-Snape,
Please find attached, a decision letter in regards to your FOI request
(our reference number FOI 16/40).
Regards,
[1]Department of Finance and Deregulation
FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
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Hello,
I would like to request an internal review of this decision.
In the current request, the Departmental decision maker found an Estimates brief topic list contained deliberative matter.
Earlier this year Acting Australian Information Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim found an Estimates brief topic list did not contain deliberative matter: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/A...
Commissioner Pilgrim decided in this case that the form of the document requested - merely a list - did not constitute deliberative matter:
"While I accept that the Department would have engaged in a deliberative process with the relevant Ministers over which topics Ministers should be briefed on ahead of Senate Estimates, the topics list does not reveal those deliberations, nor does the document appear to be the basis or starting point of those deliberations."
I submit that the document does not contain deliberative matter and is therefore not conditionally exempt.
To argue, as the decision-maker has done in this case, that preparation of an incoming government brief may be informed by the deliberative matter in this document requires the list to actually contain deliberative matter. Commissioner Pilgrim found a list of topics does not contain such matter.
The document is in the same format - a list - as the document in the aforementioned case.
The document is produced by the same Department as the document in the aforementioned case.
No argument has been made to distinguish the document I have requested from the document requested in the above case.
It is as similar a case as could be imagined across two different FOI applications.
To find in contradiction to Commissioner Pilgrim's finding would be to declare each decision by the Commissioner to have only value for its own set of circumstances. This would be in opposition to the objects of the FOI Act.
An object of the Act is to provide a right of access to documents.
Prior to making this application, I read the aforementioned decision, which provided access to an Estimates topic list. It confirmed a right of access to such a document in line with the Act. I wanted to see such a topic list so I submitted an FOI request for such a document. To decide this document represents deliberative matter would be to deny the public's right of access to the document in contravention with the Act.
Another object of the Act is to exercise the functions and powers of the Act promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost.
There is an analogous, recent decision of the Information Commissioner that can be relied upon to provide prompt and cost effective resolution to this request. To find in contradiction of that decision in the almost identical factual circumstance of this request is to be in contravention of the object of the Act.
Yours sincerely,
Jackson Gothe-Snape
Thank you for your email to the Freedom of Information section of the
Department of Finance (Finance). We have received your email and will
endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.
You may view Finance’s Freedom of Information procedures and processes on
[1]http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
Further information relating to Freedom of Information can be found on the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s [2]website.
[3]Signature blocks-blue bar.jpg
Freedom of Information
Legal Services Branch
Department of Finance
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
References
Visible links
1. http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/foi.html
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...
UNCLASSIFIED
Good afternoon Mr Gothe-Snape,
Please find attached, an internal review decision and document in regards
to your FOI 16/40 request.
Regards, Kira
[1]Department of Finance and Deregulation
FOI Officer
Legal Services Branch
Corporate Services Division
Department of Finance
T: 02 6215 1783 E: [email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
________________________________
Finance Australian Business Number (ABN): 61 970 632 495
Finance Web Site: www.finance.gov.au
IMPORTANT:
This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone on 61-2-6215-2222 and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
If responding to this email, please send to the appropriate person using the suffix .gov.au.
________________________________
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