Reply to: GPO Box 4889 Sydney NSW 2001
Mr James Smith
c/- RightToKnow website
Our reference: 1-7Y60J39
Contact officer: Elizabeth Li
Date: 13 May 2016
Dear Mr Smith
Freedom of Information Request dated 18 April 2016
I refer to your request made under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) for the
__
__
following documents:
1. Current social media policy of the department, which covers departmental use
and/or private use by employees in an individual capacity.
2. Any current guidance material which is available for employees to make informed
decisions about their private social media use.’
Authority
This letter sets out my decision on your request for access to documents.
I am an authorised decision-maker under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Summary of Decision
Following extensive searches by the relevant areas within the ATO, I have identified 17
documents, comprising of 61 pages, relevant to the FOI Request. My decision is that of
those documents:
— 9 documents are to be released in full
— 8 documents are to be released in part
Detailed reasons for my decision are set out at
Attachment A.
Attachment B is a Schedule which describes each of the relevant documents and my
decision about each of them.
Relevant material
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
a) the terms of the request
b) the documents relevant to the requests
c) the FOI Act
d) Guidelines published by the Office of the Information Commissioner under
section 93A of the FOI Act (
the FOI Guidelines)
e) advice from ATO officers with responsibility for matters relating to the documents to
which you sought access
f)
the ATO’s guidance material on the FOI Act
Other information
The relevant documents are the current Social Media Policy of the ATO. Please note that
section 6.2 of the APS Values and Code of Conduct in practice has replaced the previous
Australian Public Service Commission guidance on these matters. As a result of this change
to APSC policy, all current social media policy will be reviewed and updated by the ATO in
the near future if required.
Charges
I have decided not to impose charges to your request.
Your review rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information
Commissioner review of the decision. We encourage you to seek internal review as a first
step as it may provide a more rapid resolution of your concerns.
Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the ATO for an internal review
of my decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days of the date of
this letter, quoting our reference number at the top of this letter, and be lodged in one of the
following ways:
email:
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
post:
Australian Taxation Office, General Counsel, GPO Box 4889, Sydney
NSW 2001.
Where possible please attach reasons why you believe review of the decision is necessary.
The internal review will be carried out by another officer within 30 days. If you have not been
informed of the outcome of the review within that time, you may apply to the Australian
Information Commissioner under section 54L of the FOI Act.
Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information
Commissioner to review my decision. An application for review by the Information
Commissioner must be made in writing within 60 days of the date of this letter, and be
lodged in one of the following ways:
online:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-review-process
email:
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
post:
GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
in person: Level 3, 175 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
Your application must include a copy of this letter (and any attachments), an address where
notices can be sent to you (eg your email address) and particulars of the basis on which you
dispute the decision.
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Visit the Australian Information Commissioner website,
www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-
information/foi-reviews, for more information about Information Commissioner review.
Complaints
Any complaint about the processing of your FOI request can be directed to the
Commonwealth Ombudsman. The complaint should set out the action you consider should
be investigated. Complaints may be lodged in one of the following ways:
Phone:
1300 362 072
Indigenous Line phone number:
1800 060 789
In writing:
GPO Box 442 Canberra ACT 2601
or by fax (02) 6276 0123
Online:
www.ombudsman.gov.au/pages/making-a-
complaint/
Visit
www.ombudsman.gov.au for further details.
Contacts
If you have any queries about this notice, please phone 13 28 69 during business hours and
ask for Elizabeth Li on ext 48951.
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ATTACHMENT A - REASONS FOR DECISION
Any reference to ‘documents’ should be read as including parts of documents relevant to the
particular exemption which is discussed.
For the reasons set out below I have exempted certain documents in part or in full under
section 22 of the FOI Act.
Details of the precise parts of the documents exempted are set out in the Schedule at
Attachment B.
Findings of fact and reasons for decision
Where the schedule of documents indicates an exemption claim has been applied to a
document or part of document, my findings of fact and reasons for deciding that the
exemption provision applies to that document or part of document are set out below.
Section 22(1)(a)(ii) - Deletion of exempt or irrelevant information
Section 22(1)(a)(ii) allows an agency to delete information that would reasonably be
regarded as irrelevant to an FOI request. I have found some documents containing names
of ATO officer, images of individuals and indexes of ATO intranet. In my opinion, the
redacted information is not relevant to the scope of your application.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Li
Senior Legal Officer
General Counsel
Attachments
Schedule of exemptions and deletions
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