OFFICIAL

 

Reference: FOI/2024/385 

 

Dear Trav S

 

Thank you for your email of 22 November 2024 in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to the Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department). 

You set out the terms of the request as follows:

 

Please accept my request for information in accordance with the FOI Act. I
ask you to refer to documents released to FOI/2024/316, and in particular
the two documents prepared in 2010.

On 30 July 2010, a Mr Rush invoked powers under delegation to recommend
the Governor-General approve the award of the Humanitarian Overseas
Service Medal to persons listed in Schedule 07/2010. The public official
assured the Honours and Awards Secretariat that relevant organisations had
verified the applicants service.

1. Please provide the relevant organisation's documents that were relied
upon to verify the service of the Australian contingent to the GE water
humanitarian operation;

2. Please release the 30 July 2010 letter to the Honours and Awards
Secretariat and the accompanying Schedule with all section 22 redactions
removed. All of the information contained in these documents is relevant
to this request for information;

3. Please ensure the name and position of the public official who signed
to certify the information in Schedule 07/2010. This material is redacted
via s22 but can be found in the lower right hand side of Schedule 07/2010;

4. Please produce a document recording the number of persons listed in
Schedule 07/2010 for the Australian contingent to GE water humanitarian
operation.

 

Timeframe for receiving your decision and request for extension of time

The 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the
day after the Department received your request. A decision is therefore
due from us by 23 December 2024. We note that the processing time overlaps
with the departmental shutdown period between Christmas and New Years Day.
In light of this, we would like to seek your agreement to a 30 day
extension under section 15AA of the FOI Act.  

 

Please confirm your agreement to the extension of time by replying to this
email by 3 December 2024.

 

Charges

Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department decides that you
are liable to pay a charge, we will send you a preliminary assessment of
the charge as soon as possible. 

 

Publication of documents

Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[1]https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/depart...,
subject to certain exceptions.  If you think you might wish to raise any
objections to the publication of your requested document, which may be
released to you, please contact us by email at [2][DPMC request email].  If you
do wish to object to the publication of information, you would need to set
out your reasons.

 

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details

For documents that fall within scope of the request, it is the
Department’s policy to withhold:

 

·         any person’s signature;

·         the names and contact details of Australian Public Service
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES);

·         the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers;

·         the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level
below Chief of Staff.

 

If you consider the information categorised above is relevant to the terms
of your request please let us know at [3][DPMC request email], otherwise we will
take it that you agree this category of information may be reasonably
regarded as irrelevant and we will delete this information if it appears
in the documents that are otherwise responsive to your request.  The
names and other details of SES officers will not be withheld unless there
is some reason for that information to be exempt from release.

 

Further information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at
[4]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...

 

Yours sincerely

 

Coordinator | FOI Section

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

e. [5][email address]  w. [6]pmc.gov.au 

 

 

[7]http://url5193.checkbox.ai/wf/open?upn=u...

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References

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2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
4. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
5. mailto:[email address]
6. https://pmc.gov.au/