Reference:
FOI 22/65
Contact:
FOI Team
E-mail:
xxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
D
Right to Know
By email only:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear D
Freedom of Information Request – FOI 22/65
On 16 August 2022, the Department of Finance (Finance) received your email, in which you
sought access under the Commonwealth
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to the
following:
I request any document, email, briefing or report prepared within the Department of Finance
relating to the decision which the Prime Minister communicated to crossbench
parliamentarians in June 2022 concerning their allocation of personal staff.
The statutory period for processing your request commences from the day after Finance
received your request and a decision is due on 15 September 2022.
Liability to pay a charge
In accordance with the
Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 (Regulations),
and the FOI Act, I have decided that you are liable to pay a charge in respect of processing
your request and am notifying you accordingly.
My preliminary assessment of that charge is as follows:
Task
Rate
Units
Charge
Search & retrieval
$15 per hour
1.07 hours $
15.98
Decision-making
$20 per hour 17.48 hours $
349.53
less first 5 hours free
5 hours $
-100.00
TOTAL
$
266.81
In accordance with the Regulations, this estimate has included five hours of decision making
time free of charge.
1
One Canberra Avenue, Forrest ACT 2603 Telephone 02 6215 2222
Internet www.finance.gov.au
Fee reduction
Given the circumstances of this request, I have decided that it is in the public interest to
reduce the charge by 50 per cent. This means the charge payable is
$133.41.
Timeframe
Within 30 days of the date of this notice, you need to either:
agree to pay the charge indicated above and forward the deposit; or
contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed, or should be reduced or not
imposed (you should provide full reasons for your contention); or
withdraw your request.
Notice must be provided to Finance in writing. If you fail to notify Finance in a manner
described above within 30 days of the date on this notice, being on or before
24 September 2022, it will be taken that you have withdrawn your request.
The time period for processing your request is suspended from the date of this notice and
resumes on either the day you pay the deposit or the day on which Finance makes a decision
not to impose a charge. However, the actual processing time may also be affected by third
party consultation.
Payment of charges
You can agree to pay the charge. If you agree, processing of your request will resume as
soon as Finance receives payment.
Payment is
$133.41. Payment entitles you to receive a decision in relation to your request, a
schedule (if there are more than 3 documents) which lists the documents relevant to your
request, and any documents released.
If you agree to pay the charge please notify the FOI team and they will prepare an invoice
for you to complete, sign and return.
If you disagree with the charge
If you contend that the charge has been wrongly assessed, or should be reduced or not
imposed, such a contention is not a request for internal review. You will be advised of your
review rights following my consideration of your contentions. In deciding whether to reduce
or not impose a charge, I must take into account whether payment of the charge, or part of it,
would cause you financial hardship and whether the giving of access to the documents is in
the general public interest.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) sets out the process for
calculating and imposing charges, together with information regarding when an agency
shoul
d correct, reduce or waive charges.
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Policy to exclude junior officer details
Finance has adopted a policy to exclude the names and contact details of junior staff (non
SES officers) and staff employed under the
Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 (advisor
level and below) from any documents released. Finance has also adopted a policy to exclude
signatures and mobile phone numbers from any documents released under FOI (unless
publicly available). Finance’s preference is to reach agreement with FOI applicants to
exclude these details from the scope of the request. Where there is no objection, the names
and contact details of junior officers are redacted under section 22 of the FOI Act, together
with anyone’s signatures, on the basis that these details are irrelevant to the request.
Publication
Subject to certain exceptions, any documents provided to you under the FOI Act will be
published on Finance’s FOI
Disclosure Log. Finance’s policy is to publish the documents
one working day after they are released to you.
Please contact the FOI Team on the above contact details if you wish to discuss your
request.
Yours sincerely,
Jillian Flinders
Acting Assistant Secretary
HR Frameworks | Ministerial and Parliamentary Services
Department of Finance
25 August 2022
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