Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2020 03:56:25 +0000
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Department of Home Affairs and the FOI Act - Disclosure Log
From: JS <[FOI #6706 email]>
To: FOI <[email address]>

Dear Minister for the Public Service,

Under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 the accountable authority of each entity has a Duty to establish and maintain systems relating to risk and control. Under the Public Service Act the responsibilities of the Secretary of a Department include implementing measures directed at ensuring that the Department complies with the law. The Code of Conduct for the Australian Public Service requires that an employee must act with care and diligence in connection with APS employment.

{Published in The Mandarin November 22, 2019}
Complying with the Freedom of Information Act is a second-order priority for the Minister and the Department of Home Affairs, according to secretary Michael Pezzullo, who thinks his FOI team’s performance is “commendable” considering the limited resources it has to work with. The secretary will not allocate more resources to FOI processing or ask for more from the government for that purpose, despite the Office of the Information Commissioner moving to investigate his department’s persistent non-compliance with aspects of the FOI Act.

The FOI Act requires agencies to publish information in a disclosure log within 10 working days after the freedom of information (FOI) applicant was 'given access' to a document. Parliament, Ministers and the public expect that Commonwealth Agencies will respect and comply with Commonwealth Law.  The Department of Home Affairs has failed to comply with the law on numerous occasions since December 2017.

Under FOI I seek access to documents concerning or relating to the FOI disclosure log maintained by the Department of Home Affairs. The period of the request is December 2017 to the date of this request.

Yours faithfully,

JS

I understand Integrity has been dropped from the name of the office.

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