Our reference: LEX418
Ms Vanessa Teague
By email to
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ms Teague
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST NO. LEX418
I refer to your online request made 8 June 2021 10:30 AM and your follow up online
message dated 8 June 2021 10:33 AM in which you request (‘your FOI Request’) to the
Australian Electoral Commission (‘AEC’) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 for
access to documents relating to the Senate Counting Solution.
SCOPE OF YOUR FOI REQUEST
I have taken your request to be for:
all documents related to this other "suitable arrangement" for the Senate Counting
Solution referred to in the released email dated Friday October 12, 2018.
INVITATION TO WITHDRAW YOUR FOI REQUEST
The “suitable arrangement” for the Senate Counting Solution was the AEC’s proprietary
software EasyCount. EasyCount remains a trade secret of the AEC.
The existence of the trade secret was determined in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal see
its decision in Cordover and Australian Electoral Commission (Freedom of
information)
[2015] AATA 956 (11 December 2015).
Accordingly, I invite you to withdraw your request.
If you do not withdraw the FOI Request within the next 7 days, I will proceed with processing
the request as follows.
HOW YOUR FOI REQUEST WILL PROCESSED IF IT PROCEEDS
We received your request on 8 June 2021 and the 30 day statutory period for processing
your request commenced from the day after that date. You should therefore expect a
10 Mort Street, Canberra ACT 2601 P 02 6271 4411 F 02 6215 9999
www.aec.gov.au
decision from us by 8 July 2021. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to
consult third parties, impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you if this
happens.
You will be notified of any charges in relation to your request as soon as possible, before we
process any requested documents or impose a final charge
. I should warn you that the
source code is a very large document that when produced in written form fills over 10 arch
leaf folders. There is also a charge for retrieval of the source code and its production in
visible form.
Please note that documents released under the FOI Act may later be published online on the
AEC’s disclosure log
at http://www.aec.gov.au/information-access/foi/, subject to certain
exceptions. (For example, personal information will not be published where this would be
unreasonable.)
We will contact you using the email address that you provided. Please advise if you would
prefer us to use an alternative means of contact. If you have any questions, please contact
me at:
email:
xxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
fax:
02 6293 7657
post:
Locked bag 4007, Canberra ACT 2601
telephone:
02 6271 4528
Yours sincerely
Owen Jones
Senior Lawyer
Legal Services
Legal and Procurement Branch
8 June 2021
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