ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT
BARTON
FOI
FOI/2020/239
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982
REQUEST BY:
Trav S
DECISION BY: Peter Rush
Assistant Secretary
Parliamentary and Government Branch
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Trav S
I refer to your email of 12 October 2020 in which you made a request to the Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the
Department) under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (the
FOI Act) in the following terms:
The Department responsible for honours policy instructed the drafting of an
amendment of HOSM (Iraq) declaration 2004 to extend to specified commercial
contractors engaged by AusAID to support Australian government humanitarian
operations. Proposed text was promulgated for review in March 2012.
The Department recently stated this advice came before final advice from
stakeholders.
I would like to ask for a copy of the final advice from stakeholders under the FOI Act.
Please do not include document B13/1718 if this is the final advice.
On 23 October 2020, you advised the Department as follows:
Please accept this minor amendment.
I may have made an error in referring to the Branch responsible for HOSM
administration as the Department responsible for HOSM policy in my FOI request.
I don't know if this makes a difference to the request but will be happy to correct if
advised.
Postal Address: PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849 Fax: +61 2 6271 5776 www.pmc.gov.au ABN: 18 108 001 191
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the Act.
Decision
I have decided to refuse your request under section 24A(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act.
Reasons
Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act provides that:
An agency or Minister may refuse a request for access to a document if:
(a) all reasonable steps have been taken to find the document;
and
(b) the agency or Minister is satisfied that the document:
(i)
is in the agency’s or Minister’s possession but cannot be found; or
(ii)
does not exist.
Your FOI request seeks access to a document that, if it existed, would have been identified in
document searches for a prior FOI request received by the Department. I have had regard to
the search results done for that prior FOI request. Those prior searches covered relevant
electronic and paper records. I am satisfied that no document meeting the terms of your FOI
request exists apart from document B13/1718. Document B13/1718 comprises the final
advice, which I note you have excluded from the terms of your FOI request.
I have therefore decided to refuse your request under section 24A(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act.
Processing and access charges
I have decided not to impose charges in respect of your request.
Review rights
Information about your rights of review under the FOI Act is available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/.
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Complaint rights
You may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the Department’s actions
in relation to a request. Making a complaint about the way the Department has handled an
FOI request is a separate process to seeking review of the Department’s decision. Further
information about how to make a complaint is available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-
of-information/reviews-and-complaints/. Yours sincerely
Peter Rush
Assistant Secretary
Parliamentary and Government Branch
11 November 2020
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Document Outline
