Your Ref
Our Ref
LEX44747
Matthew Peos
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Matthew
Your Freedom of Information request - consultation
I refer to your request, received by the Department of Education, Skil s and Employment
(department) on 10 October 2021, for access under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to the fol owing documents:
1) Clarify the Laws/Acts which the Commonwealth Department of Education, Skil s and
Employment are to abide by when assessing related matters to their Department.
2) Any Documents outlining direction given to the Commonwealth Department of Education,
Skil s and Employment from either The Government of Australia, The Parliament of Australia,
Department of Health or Any other Regulatory Body in relation to the laws concerning the
Covid 19 Mandate for Vaccination.
3) Any Documents sent to the Commonwealth Department of Education, Skil s and
Employment from The Government of Australia, The Parliament of Australia, The
Department of Health or any other regulatory body outlining the necessity for a mandate on
compulsory Vaccination.
4) Any communication from any other Administrative and/or Regulatory body outlining the
Specifics of the Sars 2 / Covid 19 virus with an Environmental Impact study in relation to the
workplace.
5) An official Dossier of the Covid 19 virus specifical y outlining the virus at molecular level,
effects, causes and treatments as essential to make an informed decision in relation to
regulating and recommending future workplace employment policies and employee rights to
be presided over essential for the competent regulation of the specified Departments.
6) Documents in relation as to which body regulates the Commonwealth Department of
Education, Skil s and Employment.
GPO Box 9880, Canberra ACT 2601 | Phone 1300 488 064 | www.dese.gov.au | ABN 12 862 898 150
This documentation is specific to the operating procedures and standards of the Department
of Jobs and Small Business in relation to general operations on a day to day basis and
regulates the practices of al employees of the specified department and as such should be
readily available upon request. I wish to see the official responses to these questions as i
would like to make an informed decision regarding my future communications to regulatory
bodies.
On 6 October 2021, you made a request to the department in very similar terms to your
current request. By email on 7 October 2021, the department advised you that your
6 October 2021 request was not a valid request under the FOI Act because it did not provide
enough information about the documents you wish to access to enable the department to
identify them. You then submitted your request dated 10 October 2021.
Your current request
Part 1
We note that the FOI Act provides a right of access to documents in the possession of the
department rather than to information. Accordingly, this part of the request is not valid
under the FOI Act.
However, we can advise that, like all Australian Government agencies, the department must
comply with all relevant laws at all times. The Acts the department has been given
responsibility for administering are set out in the Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO).
AAOs formally allocate executive responsibility among ministers and set out which matters
and legislation are administered by which Australian Government department or portfolio.
The current AAO can be found at the fol owing link:
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021Q00014.
Noting the above, the department wil take no further action in relation to this part of your
request.
Parts 2 and 3
At part 2 of your request, you seek access to ‘any Documents outlining direction given to the
Commonwealth Department of Education, Skil s and Employment from either The
Government of Australia, The Parliament of Australia, Department of Health or Any other
Regulatory Body in relation to laws concerning the Covid 19 Mandate for Vaccination.’
Part 3 of your request is worded as fol ows, ‘Any Documents sent to the Commonwealth
Department of Education, Skills and Employment from The Government of Australia, The
Parliament of Australia, The Department of Health or any other regulatory body outlining
the necessity for a mandate on compulsory Vaccination.’
At both of these parts of your request, you refer to a COVID-19 vaccination mandate. I am
advised there is no mandate for the Australian public to receive a vaccination against COVID-
19, so it is unclear what your request is referring to in these parts of your request.
Please see our further comments about these parts of your request below.
Parts 4 and 5
Parts 4 and 5 of your request are in the following terms:
4) Any communication from any other Administrative and/or Regulatory body outlining the
Specifics of the Sars 2 / Covid 19 virus with an Environmental Impact study in relation to the
workplace.
5) An official Dossier of the Covid 19 virus specifical y outlining the virus at molecular level,
effects, causes and treatments as essential to make an informed decision in relation to
regulating and recommending future workplace employment policies and employee rights to
be presided over essential for the competent regulation of the specified Departments.
I am advised by the relevant business area within the department that the department has
not received any communication from any administrative and/or regulatory body containing
the information you have requested at part 4 of your request. I am further advised that,
while it is not entirely clear what is meant by part 5 of your request, the department has not
received nor sought a dossier of the kind described in this part of your request.
Noting the department does not hold the documents sought at these parts of your request,
we will treat parts 4 and 5 of your request as withdrawn unless you advise otherwise
in any
response to this notice.
Part 6
At part 6 of your request, you seek access to ‘documents in relation as to which body
regulates the Commonwealth Department of Education, Skil s and Employment.’
To assist you with this part of your request, we can advise that the department is a
department of state and is legally and financially part of the Commonwealth. This means
that the department was established by the Governor-General (as advised by the Prime
Minister) and the Governor-General appointed ministers to administer the department. As
noted above, the AAO lists the matters dealt with by each department of state and the
legislation administered by each minister.
Accordingly, the relevant ministers appointed to the department by the Governor-General
are responsible for administering the functions of the department and the department
assists the relevant minister/s to undertake these functions.
More information about the operation of departments of state can be found on the
Department of Finance’s website: https://www.finance.gov.au/government/managing-
commonwealth-resources/structure-australian-government-public-sector/types-australian-
government-bodies as well as the Australian Parliament House website:
https://www.aph.gov.au/About Parliament/House of Representatives/Powers practice a
nd procedure/00 - Infosheets/Infosheet 20 - The Australian system of government
Noting the information provided, we will take no further steps to process this part of your
request and will consider this part as withdrawn unless you advise otherwise in any response
to this notice.
Parts 2 and 3 - Practical refusal reason
I am writing to you under sections 24AA(1)(b), 24AA(2) and 24 of the FOI Act to notify you of
my intention to refuse parts 2 and 3 of your request because I am satisfied that a practical
refusal reason exists under subsection 24AA(1). This is because these parts of your request,
as currently worded, do not satisfy the requirements of paragraph 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act.
That is, they do not provide sufficient information to enable the department to identify the
documents you are seeking access to.
I have consulted with relevant departmental officers regarding the terms of these parts of
your request and whether the department holds any documents which may be captured by
these parts of your request as currently worded.
I am asking you to clarify the scope of parts 2 and 3 of your request and provide us with
more information about the documents you wish to access to enable us to identify them. If
we are unable to reach a satisfactory agreement on the scope of these parts of your request,
it is my intention to refuse your request as currently worded under section 24 of the FOI Act.
To assist you, I have set out the relevant sections of the FOI Act at
Attachment A.
Suggestions for clarifying the scope of parts 2 and 3 of your request
To assist you to clarify parts 2 and 3 of the request, I suggest you rephrase the terms of
these parts of the request to clearly identify the documents you would like to access. For
example, it would be helpful if you could explain what ‘COVID-19 vaccination mandate’ you
are referring to.
Depending on what you mean by a ‘COVID-19 vaccination mandate’, it appears as though
these parts of your request might be more appropriately directed to the Department of
Health so you may wish to consider making an FOI request to that department instead.
Action required from you under the FOI Act
Before I make a final decision on parts 2 and 3 of your request, you can submit a revised
request.
Under the FOI Act, you must do one of the fol owing things in the next 14 days:
• make a revised request
• tel us that you do not want to revise your request
• withdraw your request.
Contact officer
I am the contact officer for your request. During the consultation period you can contact me
to ask for help revising parts 2 and 3 of your request by emailing xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Your response wil be expected by
8 November 2021. If I do not receive a response from
you, your request wil be taken to be withdrawn by the operation of the FOI Act.
Further assistance
If you have any questions, please email xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Alison
Authorised decision maker
Department of Education, Skil s and Employment
25 October 2021
Attachment A
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Section 24AA(1)(b) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to
an FOI request if the request does not satisfy the requirements in paragraph 15(2)(b) of the
FOI Act. Paragraph 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act provides that, for a request to be valid, it must
provide such information concerning the document requested as is reasonably necessary to
enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister, to identify it.
Section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act sets out certain factors which the department must consider
when determining whether providing access in relation to a request would substantial y and
unreasonably divert resources. The department must specifically have regard to the
resources that would have to be used for:
• identifying, locating or collating the documents
• deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to which the
request relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of such a document, including
resources that would have to be used for examining the document or consulting in
relation to the request
• making a copy, or an edited copy, of the document
• notifying any interim or final decision on the request.
Section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act provides that the request is taken to have been withdrawn at
the end of the consultation period if:
• the applicant does not consult the contact person during the consultation period in
accordance with the notice
• the applicant does not do one of the things mentioned in subsection (6) before the
end of the consultation period.
Section 24AB(6) says that the applicant must, before the end of the consultation period, do
one of the following, by written notice to the agency or Minister:
• withdraw the request
• make a revised request
• indicate that the applicant does not wish to revise the request.