Our reference: FOIREQ19/00217
Julie
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Your freedom of information request – FOIREQ19/00217
Dear Julie,
I refer to your request for access to documents made under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth) and received by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 2
October 2019.
In your email of 2 October 2019, you sought access to:
The s 17 produced document sought is a ful position report for the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner, from your Human Resource Management
Information System (HRMIS).
The only fields sought are:
Position Number
Job Title (or equivalent)
Classification/Job Level (or equivalent)
Reports to
Filled/Unfilled (whether the position currently has an occupant, whether on leave or
not)
If possible, an additional column that indicates whether the position occupant has
been admitted as a legal practitioner by the Supreme Court or equivalent (unless that
causes a disparate amount of work)
On 16 October 2019, you sent a further email stating:
With regards to my scope, just to avoid any misunderstanding, when I say:
“The only fields sought are:
* Position Number
* Job Title (or equivalent)
* Classification/Job Level (or equivalent)
* Reports to
* Fil ed/Unfil ed (whether the position currently has an occupant, whether
on leave or not)”
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
I mean those fields, or if your HRMIS system calls them by a slightly different title, those they
equate to (or would be identified as being related to). Requiring an exact match on field
description to bring them in scope, if the actual field name (if different) can be understood as
relating to those descriptions, would be inconsistent with the objects and aims of the Act.
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
Information stored in electronic form - s 17
Section 17 requires an agency to produce a written document of information that is stored
electronically and not in a discrete written form, if it does not appear from the request that
the applicant wishes to be provided with a computer tape or disk on which the information is
recorded.
I have created one document from the readily available information held by the OAIC as at 9
October 2019, that most closely meets your request. I note the OAIC does not use position
numbers.
Please see the following page for information about your review rights and information
about the OAIC’s disclosure log.
Yours sincerely,
Amanda Nowland
Senior Lawyer
1 November 2019
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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, and the Information
Commissioner is satisfied that in the interests of administration of the Act it is desirable that
my decision be considered by the AAT, the Information Commissioner may decide not to
undertake an IC review.
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 t
o 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
contact
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 document I have decided to release to you does not contain business or personal
information that would be unreasonable to publish. As a result, the document will be
published on o
ur disclosure log shortly after being released to you.
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Document Outline
