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ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT
BARTON
FOI
FOI/2022/017
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982
REQUEST BY:
Trav S
DECISION BY: Ms Petra Gartmann
Assistant Secretary
Legal Policy Branch
Trav S
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Trav S
I refer to your email of 6 January 2022, 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:
Refer to your department’s document Ref: B09/1640 'Re: Humanitarian Overseas
Service Medal: Assessment of Australian contingent to GE Infrastructure for Indian
Ocean'. Mr Peter Rush approved the document 17 November 2009. We ask for a
copy of the documents recording the consultations with the Australian Army (referred
to at the bottom of page 1).
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 FOI Act.
Decision The Department has identified three (3) documents in its possession which come within the
scope of your request. I have decided to release the relevant information contained within
those documents in full. Copies of the documents that are released to you in accordance with
my decision are
attached.
In making this decision, I have had regard to the following material:
• the FOI request;
• the requested documents;
• the FOI Act; and
• the ‘Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under s 93A of
the
Freedom of Information Act 1982’
1 (the
FOI Guidelines).
1 FOI Guidelines combined June 2019 published on the web site of the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/foi-guidelines/.
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
Deletion of exempt or irrelevant material
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that exempt or irrelevant information may be deleted from
a copy of a document, and access granted to such an amended copy where it is reasonably
practicable to do so, unless it is apparent that the applicant would not wish to have access to
such a copy.
I have had regard to the nature of documents and that they cover various subject or topics and
that parts of the documents are not relevant to the terms of your request, which was
specifically seeking access to information regarding consultations with the Australian Army.
It is the Department’s policy to withhold:
• any person’s signature
• the names of and contact details of Australian Public Service officers not in the Senior
Executive Service (SES)
• the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers; and
• the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level below Chief of Staff.
I have therefore deleted irrelevant material in accordance with section 22 of the FOI Act.
I find that it is reasonably practicable to copy the document with the irrelevant information
deleted, and that you would wish to be granted access to those document with the deletions.
Processing charges
I have decided not to impose processing charges in respect of your request.
Publication of the documents
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires an agency to publish on its web site information released
to an applicant under the FOI Act.
Review rights
Information about rights of review is available at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-
information/reviews-and-complaints/.
Complaint rights
You may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the Department’s actions
in relation to this 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/make-an-foi-complaint/.
Yours sincerely
Ms Petra Gartmann
Assistant Secretary
Legal Policy Branch
18 February 2022
2
Document Outline
