ANDREW FISHER BUILDING
ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT
BARTON
Reference: FOI 2022/029
To L Cameron
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear L Cameron
Freedom of Information (FOI) request – Notice of Decision
I refer to your email of 15 January 2022 in which you made an FOI request to the Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (the FOI Act).
The purpose of this letter is to provide you with a decision on your request for access under
the FOI Act.
Scope of request
You set out the terms of your request for access as follows (extract):
Background
I refer to documents released by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) finding that the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
acted illegally by reference to its obligations under the FOI Act as available here:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/8096/response/23753/attach/10/FOIREQ21%
2000263%20Documents%20for%20release.pdf
Request
I seek access to a copy of any document given by the Department to the OAIC that
advises the OAIC of the implementation of the above statutory recommendations as
made by the Acting Freedom of Information Commissioner in response to the
illegalities engaged in by the Department.
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.
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
Material taken into account
In reaching my decision I referred to the following:
• the terms of your request
• the document relevant to your request
• the FOI Act
• guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of
the FOI Act (the FOI Guidelines)
Document in scope of request The Department has identified one (1) document that falls within the scope of your request.
The document existed in the possession of the Department on 15 January 2022 when your
FOI request was received.
Decision
With regard to the document you have requested, and which has been identified as falling
within the scope of your request, I have decided to grant access in full, with irrelevant
material deleted.
Reason for decision
My findings of fact and reasons for deciding that certain information is irrelevant is set out
below.
1. Deletion of irrelevant matter
Section 22 of the FOI Act provides that if giving access to a document would disclose
information that would be reasonably regarded as irrelevant to the request, it is possible for
the Department to prepare an edited copy of the document, modified by deletions, ensuring
that the edited copy would not disclose any information that would reasonable be regarded as
irrelevant to the request.
On 19 January 2022, the Department advised you of its policy to exclude the personal and
direct contact details of officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) and any Ministerial
staff, as well as any person’s signature, and the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers,
which are contained in documents that fall within the terms of an FOI request. This category
of information is identified as irrelevant and documents can be modified by the Department to
delete the irrelevant material.
Accordingly I am satisfied that parts of the document are irrelevant under section 22(1)(a)(ii)
of the FOI Act. The remainder of the document has been released to you as it is relevant to
your request.
Review rights
If you disagree with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information
Commissioner review of the decision. We encourage you to seek internal review as a first step
as it may provide a more rapid resolution of your concerns.
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Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the Department for an internal
review of my decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days of the
date of this letter. Where possible please attach reasons why you believe review of the
decision is necessary. The internal review will be carried out by another officer within
30 days from the date it is received.
Applications for review should be sent t
o xxx@xxx.xxx.xx. More information about making a request to the Department is at
https://www.pmc.gov.au/who-we-are/accountability-and-reporting/freedom-information. Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information
Commissioner to review my decision. An application for review by the Information
Commissioner must be made in writing within 60 days of the date of this letter.
More information about Information Commissioner review is available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/information-
commissioner-review/.
FOI Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your FOI request, please let us know what
we could have done better. We may be able to rectify the problem. If you are not satisfied
with our response, you can make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner.
A complaint to the Information Commissioner must be made in writing.
More information about complaints is available on the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner a
t https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-
complaints/make-an-foi-complaint/. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your requests, you can contact the FOI Section by email
at
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx. Yours sincerely
Petra Gartmann
Assistant Secretary
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
15 March 2022
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