OFFICIAL
Freedom of Information (FOI) request
Notice of Decision
Reference: FOI/2022/175
Mr Trav S
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Trav S
I refer to your email of 23 June 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 your request in the fol owing terms:
Please provide the APS job descriptions for the following public servants:
1. Mr John Reid
2. Ms Petra Gartmann
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.
Material taken into account
In reaching my decision I referred to the fol owing:
• the terms of your request
• searches and inquires undertaken by the Department
• the document relevant to your request
• 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
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• the Guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner
1 (the FOI Guidelines)
Document in scope of request
The Department has identified one document that fal s within the scope of your request, being a
Work Level Assessment for Senior Executive Roles undertaken in 2020.
Decision
I have decided to grant access, in ful , to those parts of the document that are within the scope of
your request, being
‘job descriptions’ for the persons named.
I have decided that the remainder of the document is irrelevant and has been modified by deletions
under s 22 of the FOI Act.
The document released to you is enclosed.
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 the Department may prepare an edited copy of documents, to
remove information reasonably regarded as irrelevant to the request.
Your request sought access to documents specifical y relating to the job descriptions of Mr John Reid,
First Assistant Secretary of Government Division, and Ms Petra Gartmann, Assistant Secretary, Legal
Policy Branch. The document identified contains a range of information on other Senior Executive
Service (SES) roles and work level assessments within the Department, and is unrelated to the terms of
your request.
I am therefore satisfied that parts of the documents are irrelevant under section 22(1)(a)(i ) of the
FOI Act. The remainder of the document has been released to you as 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.
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 after the date of this letter.
1 s 93A of the FOI Act
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Where possible please attach reasons why you believe review of the decision is necessary. The internal
review wil be carried out by another officer within 30 days from the date it is received.
Applications for review should be sent to
xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
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 after 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. 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 at:
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
Melinda Bopping
Chief People Officer
People Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
22 July 2022
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