OFFICIAL

 

Reference: FOI/2024/386 

 

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 2014.

On 22 June 2014, 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 6/2014. 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 persons recommended for the HOSM with
the Australian contingent to the GE water humanitarian operation;

2. Please release the 22 June 2014 letter, the accompanying Schedule, and
the material in Page 59 with all section 22 redactions removed. All of the
information in the requested documents is relevant to this request and I
ask you not to apply section 22 to withhold material;

3. Please ensure the name and position of the public official who signed
to certify that eligibility had been determined in accordance with the
HOSM Regulations 2011 is disclosed. Their details are found in the
Schedule’s lower right corner.

4. Please provide the number of persons listed in Schedule 6/2014 for the
Australian contingent to GE water humanitarian operation. Regarding this
number, please produce a written document containing the information in
accordance with section 17(1) of the Act.

 

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. However, 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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1. https://www.pmc.gov.au/about-us/accounta...
2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
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5. mailto:[email address]
6. https://pmc.gov.au/