Our reference: FOIREQ18/00156
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.
You have sought access to:
Under FOI I seek copy of all documents created by the OAIC that relate to the OAICs views on
the publication of the names of public servants/APS employees in the Australian Public
Service Gazette, whether about hiding the names of disgraced public servants or otherwise.
In particular, I would be interested in any document contrasting the OAIC’s opinion here, with
the previous opinions of the Commissioner that the disclosure by Minister’s and public sector
agencies of the criminal history of private individuals is permissible under authorisation of
the Public Service Act to inform and advise and to ‘correct the record’.
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
I have identified five documents falling within the scope of your request. I have decided to
give you access to the documents, redacting only material irrelevant to your request.
Irrelevant material s 22
Section 22 provides that an agency may prepare an edited copy of a document by deleting
information that would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant to the request for access (s
22(1)(a)(ii)).
As your request is for ‘documents created by the OAIC that relate to the OAIC’s views’, I have
deleted as irrelevant under s 22(1)(ii):
- material that was not created by the OAIC; and
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
- material that does not relate to the OAIC’s view about the particulars of your request.
A schedule describing the documents and the access decision I have made is at Appendix A
to this request.
Yours sincerely,
Megan McKenna
FOI Officer
Legal Services
15 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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Appendix A: Schedule of documents – Freedom of Information request no. FOIREQ18/00156
Document
Date
Description
Decision on Access
Exemption
no.
1
24 May 2017
Email chain
Release in full
2
24 May 2017
Email to APSC
Release in full
3
1 July 2014
Email chain
Release in full
4
22 April 2014
Letter from OAIC to APSC
Release in full
5
19 March 2014
Email from OAIC to APSC
Release in full
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
