20130628 Letter to Pirate Party Australia decision.pdf

28 June 2013

Brendan Molloy
Pirate Party Australia
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Mr Molloy

Request Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
For Access to Documents
I  refer  to  your  email  dated  15  May  2013  and  your  subsequent  email  dated  21  May
2013 seeking access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)
(FOI Act). I confirm that your request, as amended, seeks the following:
1.
Documents relating to the blocking of, filtering of or interference with the IP
address 198.136.54.104, or any websites or services on said IP address; and
2.
Documents  specifying  any  IP  addresses  or  websites  targeted  by  ASIC  for
interference,  blocking  or  filtering  by  the  use  of  s  313  of  the
Telecommunications Act, from September 2012 to 21 May, 2013.
I am the authorised decision-maker for the purposes of section 23 of the FOI Act.
I have identified the documents which come within the terms of your request. These are
listed in the Schedule to this letter.
Decision on Access
I have identified 22 documents as being relevant to your request and advise that I have
decided  to  release  all  22  documents,  although  some  have  material  deleted  (this  is
discussed further below).
The  documents  that  I  have  decided  to  release  in  full  are  marked  “Release”  on  the
attached Schedule.
The documents that I have decided to release edited copies of are marked “Release -
edited” in the attached Schedule.
I have provided detailed reasons for my decision below.

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Reasons for Decision
As  stated  above,  I  have  decided  to  release  edited  copies  of  the  documents  marked
“Release - edited” in the attached Schedule. My reasons for editing these documents
are as follows:
Personal information
I find the documents numbered 12 to 22 in the attached Schedule to be conditionally
exempt from release as, under section 47F(1) of the FOI Act, their disclosure would
involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about a third party.
Sections 47F(1) and 47F(2) of the FOI Act state:
(1) A document is conditionally exempt if its disclosure under this Act would involve
the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person (including
a deceased person).
(2) In  determining  whether  the  disclosure  of  the  document  would  involve  the
unreasonable  disclosure  of  personal  information,  an  agency  or  Minister  must
have regard to the following matters:
a.  the extent to which the information is well known;
b.  whether  the  person  to  whom  the  information  relates  is  known  to  be  (or  to
have been) associated with the matters dealt with in the document;
c.  the availability of the information from publicly accessible sources;
d.  any other matters that the agency or Minister considers relevant.
Personal information is defined in section 4 of the FOI Act as:
“...information  or  an  opinion  (including  information  forming  part  of  a
database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not,
about  an  individual  whose  identity  is  apparent,  or  can  reasonably  be
ascertained, from the information or opinion.”
It is my view that the documents numbered 12 to 22 in the attached Schedule contain
personal  information  about  third  parties  and  employees  of  ASIC.  This  information
includes their names and contact details.
I have determined that the release of these documents would involve the unreasonable
disclosure of personal information as:

the personal information contained in these documents is not well known;

the  individuals  to  whom  the  personal  information  relates  are  not  known  to  be
associated with the matters dealt with in the document; and

the personal information is not available from publically accessible sources.

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In addition to the above, I have determined that, pursuant to section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the
FOI Act, this personal information is irrelevant to your request.
In making the above decisions I considered the public interest test in section 11B(3)
of the FOI Act and have determined that:

access to the documents would promote the objects of the FOI Act;

the  disclosure  of  the  personal  information  does  not  appear  to  be  material  to
understanding the subject matter contained in the documents;

the deletion of the personal information does not appear to diminish the ability to
understand the relevant documents;

withholding  the  personal  information  does  not  detract  from  the  ability  of  the
documents  to  assist  in  informing  debate  –  in  this  respect  I  note  that  I  have  not
deleted  details  of  the  ASIC  employees’  roles  and  titles  within  the  organisation;
and

the  release  of  the  personal  information  would  be  an  unreasonable  invasion  of
privacy  of  those  individuals  named  within  the  documents  particularly  in
circumstances where there is a high likelihood that these documents will be made
publically available.
However, pursuant to section 22 of the FOI Act, I am able to prepare an edited copy
of  the  document,  modified  by  deletions,  which  would  not  disclose  this  information.
Consequently  I  have  decided  to  release  copies  of  these  documents  to  you  with  such
deletions.
Released Documents
I have arranged for copies of the released documents to be made for you.
Please let me know how you would like these documents delivered to you. I can post
them  to  your  preferred  address  or,  alternatively,  make  them  available  for  collection
during business hours from ASIC’s Brisbane office at Level 20, Commonwealth Bank
Building, 240 Queen Street, Brisbane, Queensland.
Review Rights
I provide you with the following information as required by section 26 of the FOI Act.
In the event that you are dissatisfied with the decision:
1.
You may, within 30 days after the day on which you have been notified of this
decision, apply in writing to ASIC for a review of my decision by another ASIC
officer under section 54B  of the FOI  Act.    This request should be addressed to
me  or  to  the  Senior  Manager,  Administrative  Law,  GPO  Box  9827,  Sydney
NSW or by email to xxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
2.
You  may  apply  in  writing  to  the  Australian  Information  Commissioner  for  a
review  of  my  decision  under  section  54N  of  the  FOI  Act.  Correspondence

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should be addressed to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at
GPO Box 2999, Canberra ACT 2601 or GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001.
3.
You  may  lodge  a  complaint  to  the  Australian  Information  Commissioner  in
respect to the conduct of ASIC in the handling of this  request. Correspondence
should be addressed to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at
GPO Box 2999, Canberra ACT 2601 or GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001.

Yours faithfully

Anne Gubbins
(Authorised decision-maker under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act)
for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission

5
SCHEDULE OF DOCUMENTS

Decision on
Relevant
No
Description of document
Date
access
section
1.    IP Blocking Request
12/10/2012
Release
-
2.    IP Blocking Request
23/11/2012
Release
-
3.    IP Blocking Request
28/11/2012
Release
-
4.    IP Blocking Request
19/12/2012
Release
-
5.    IP Blocking Request
09/01/2013
Release
-
6.    IP Blocking Request
15/02/2013
Release
-
7.    IP Blocking Request
14/03/2013
Release
-
8.    IP Blocking Request
18/03/2013
Release
-
9.    IP Blocking Request
26/03/2013
Release
-
10.
IP Blocking Request
26/03/2013
Release
-
11.
IP Blocking Request
03/04/2013
Release
-
Email from ASIC to PIPE
Release -
Sections
12.
03/04/2013
Networks and Optus
edited
47F(1) and 22
Release –
Sections
13.
Email from Optus to ASIC
03/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
Release –
Sections
14.
Email from ASIC to Optus
03/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
Release –
Sections
15.
Email from Optus to ASIC
03/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
Release –
Sections
16.
Email from Optus to ASIC
03/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
Email from PIPE Networks to
Release –
Sections
17.
04/04/2013
ASIC
edited
47F(1) and 22
Email from ASIC to PIPE
Release –
Sections
18.
Networks, Optus, AAPT, Telstra
12/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
and Pacnet
Release –
Sections
19.
Email from ASIC to Optus
12/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
Email from PIPE Networks to
Release –
Sections
20.
12/04/2013
ASIC
edited
47F(1) and 22
Release –
Sections
21.
Email from Optus to ASIC
12/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22
Release -
Sections
22.
Email from Telstra to ASIC
12/04/2013
edited
47F(1) and 22