Our reference: FOIREQ22/00081
Julie
By email
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Julie
Your Freedom of Information Request – FOIREQ22/00081
I refer to your request for access to documents made under the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) on
18 March 2022.
Scope of your request
In your request you seek access to the following:
As the OAIC is a regulator, and OAIC employees subsequently going to work on
promotion or better conditions with those the OAIC regulates raises ethical issues
(particularly if they have been making a slew of very favourable decisions prior to their
employment by such an entity who benefited from them), what policies or restrictions
or disclosures does the OAIC have in place to prevent such pro quid pro from occurring?
I have interpreted your request broadly to include policies and other documents
which relate to an employee’s obligations.
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
FOI requests.
To locate documents within the scope of your request, searches were conducted by
OAIC staff in the relevant line area, OAIC People and Culture. Four documents were
identified to be within the scope of your request.
I have decided to:
• grant you access to 3 documents in full and
• grant you access to 1 documents in part
1300 363 992
T +61 2 9284 9749
GPO Box 5218
www.oaic.gov.au
oaic.gov.au/enquiry
F +61 2 9284 9666
Sydney NSW 2001
ABN 85 249 230 937
Reasons for decision
Material taken into account
In making my decision, I have had regard to the following:
• your Freedom of Information request
• the documents at issue
• the FOI Act, in particular s 22
• the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
s 93A of the FOI Act to which regard must be had in performing a function or
exercising a power under the FOI Act (FOI Guidelines),
Irrelevant material – s 22
Section 22(1)(a)(ii) of the FOI Act provides that an agency may prepare an edited
copy of a document by deleting information ‘that would reasonably be regarded as
irrelevant to the request for access’.
I have removed from the Induction Checklist items that do not relate to your request
for documents relating to obligations of employees.
Having regard to the terms of your request, I am satisfied that the information falls
outside the scope of your request and is therefore redacted under s 22 of the FOI Act.
Release of the documents
A schedule describing the documents and the access decision I have made is
provided as a separate document to this decision.
Please see the following page for information about your review rights and
information about the OAIC’s disclosure log.
Yours sincerely
Angela Wong
Lawyer
14 April 2022
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If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the
FOI Act. An internal review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of
the OAIC who was not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you
wish to apply for an internal review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There
is no application fee for internal review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the
attention of the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that
my decision should be reviewed.
Applications for internal reviews can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can submit your application by email t
o xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax
on 02 9284 9666.
Further Review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner
and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision
(IC review). If you wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within
60 days. Your application must provide an address (which can be an email address or
fax number) that we can send notices to, and include a copy of this letter. A request
for IC review can be made in relation to my decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it will usually not be in the interests of
the administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal
review decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the
OAIC. For this reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, and the
Information Commissioner is satisfied that in the interests of administration of the
Act it is desirable that my decision be considered by the AAT, the Information
Commissioner may decide not to undertake an IC review.
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Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the AAT for review
of an FOI decision, you must first have applied for IC review.
Applications for IC review can be submitted online at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR_
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Alternatively, you can submit your application to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Or by email t
o xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on 02 9284 9666.
Accessing your information
If you would like access to the information that we hold about you, please
conta
ct xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on th
e Access our
information page on our website.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish online documents released to
members of the public within 10 days of release, except if they contain personal or
business information that would be unreasonable to publish.
The documents I have decided to release will be published on our disclosure log in
relation to this matter.
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Document Outline
