Our reference: FOIREQ18/00155
Ms Verity Pane
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Your Freedom of Information request- Decision on access
Dear Ms Pane,
I refer to your request for access to documents, made under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) on 17 October 2018.
Your request was stated as follows:
I note the FOI made at
https://apac01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.righttoknow.o
rg.au%2Frequest%2Fic_reviews&data=01%7C01%7Cfoidr%40oaic.gov.au%7Cfd93d3b6
7e0a4a479bcc08d633db5276%7Cea4cdebd454f4218919b7adc32bf1549%7C1&sdata=ui
5NoPYNeImU8wRIc%2Btndmrv%2FtZu9SXOkCwzZYbWBb8%3D&reserved=0 here on
Right to Know.
I request under FOI the same report (s 17 compilation) but as at 1 July 2018. As the OAIC has
previously run this report, the time to process would be insignificant.
I would also like to extend the scope to include a report that, for FY17/18, details the age of
every IC Review closed in FY17/18, with the reason for closure (withdrawn, dismissed,
decision issued, substitution, etc). Reference numbers are not required.
On 1 November 2018, Ms McKenna advised you that with reference to the first part of your
request, that is, a report detailing the number of outstanding IC review applications made of
the Information Commissioner and the amount of time those review applications have been
outstanding, such a report can only be generated as at the end of each month.
As such, the report the OAIC can provide to you was created as at 30 June 2018, not as at 1
July 2018 (as per your request). Ms McKenna has made it clear in her 1 November 2018
correspondence, that as there were no Information Commissioner reviews opened or closed
on 1 July 2018, the information provided in the report (as at 30 June 2018) remains
substantially similar despite the change in the report’s end date.
1300 363 992
T +61 2 9284 9749
GPO Box 5218
www.oaic.gov.au
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
F +61 2 9284 9666
Sydney NSW 2001
ABN 85 249 230 937
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
With reference to the first part of your request, I have decided to grant you full access to a
report detailing the number of outstanding IC review applications made of the Information
Commissioner and the amount of time those review applications have been outstanding as
at 30 June 2018.
The document is a table of the number of open IC review applications and the age of these
applications, as at 30 June 2018. The age of an IC review application is the number of days
that has elapsed since the application was received by the OAIC.
With reference to the second part of your request, I have identified one document within
scope, to which I have decided to grant full access.
Communications with OAIC staff
On another note, I would ask that you please refrain from making disparaging remarks about
particular staff of the OAIC in your correspondence to this office concerning your freedom of
information applications.
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, you are able to make a
complaint to our agency, and I draw your attention to the OAIC website at ‘How do I make an
FOI complaint’
at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-complaints. I also
draw your attention to the OAIC Service Charter, which can be found at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/corporate-information/key-documents/service-charter.
The OAIC Service Charter provides that in order to assist the OAIC in providing you with the
best service possible, we expect that you will treat our officers with respect and courtesy.
Yours sincerely,
Caren Whip
Principal Lawyer
Legal Services
7 November 2018
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If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the FOI Act.
An internal review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of the OAIC who
was not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you wish to apply for an
internal review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There is no application fee for
internal review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the attention of
the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that my decision should be
reviewed.
Further Review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner and the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision (IC review). If
you wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within 60 days. Your application
must provide an address (which can be an email address or fax number) that we can send
notices to, and include a copy of this letter. A request for IC review can be made in relation to
my decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it will usually not be in the interests of the
administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal review
decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the OAIC. For this
reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, it is likely that the
Information Commissioner will decide (under s 54W(b) of the FOI Act) not to undertake an IC
review on the basis that it is desirable that my decision be considered by the AAT.
Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the AAT for review of an FOI
decision, you must first have applied for IC review.
Applications for internal review or IC review can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can submit your application by email
to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on
02 9284 9666.
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Accessing your information
If you would like access to the information that we hold about you, please
contac
t xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on th
e Access our
information page on our website.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish online documents released to
members of the public within 10 days of release, except if they contain personal or business
information that it would be unreasonable to publish.
The documents I have decided to release to you do not contain business or personal
information that would be unreasonable to publish. As a result, the documents will be
published on our disclosure log shortly after being released to you.
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