Apparent conflict in Incubator Support Initiative

Warrick Alexander (Account suspended) made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was partially successful.

Warrick Alexander (Account suspended)

Dear Department of Industry, Innovation and Science,

I would like to see a document with the date and time of each statement made by officers in the Legal, Audit and Assurance line area that expressly mentions/considers the possibility/presence of Regional Incubator Facilitator bias/conflict as:
a) "apparent", or
b) "apprehended".

I consent to the redaction of all third parties, staff names under SES level, and content that may be under legal privilege.

Thank you,

Warrick Alexander

Freedom of Information, Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Freedom of Information request Apparent conflict in Incubator Support Initiative.txt

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Dear Warrick

 

The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the department)
has received your Freedom of Information request of 2 December 2020
(attached).

 

This correspondence is to acknowledge receipt of your request. Currently a
decision is due to you by 1 January 2020. However, this timeline may be
effected by the requirement to undertake consultation with affected third
parties or if the department determines you are liable to pay a charge in
relation to your request. You will be notified by the department if
charges are liable or if third party consultation is required.

 

 

Request for extension of time

 

Please note that the department shuts down from 25 December 2020 to 4
January 2021.

 

To assist in the processing your request, we seek your agreement to a 10
day extension under section 15AA of the FOI Act. If you agree to this
extension, the department will notify the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner of the extension of time, and the decision on
your request would then be due to you on or before  11 January 2020.

 

Could you please confirm your agreement to this extension at your earliest
convenience but no later than 17 December 2020.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the FOI team.

 

Regards

 

FOI Team

Legal, Audit and Assurance | Corporate & Digital

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

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Freedom of Information, Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Freedom of Information request Apparent conflict in Incubator Support Initiative.txt

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Dear Warrick

 

I refer to your FOI request of 2 December 2020 (attached) to the
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the department) for
access to legal documents relating to conflict/bias.

 

Your request has been deemed refused, as the department has not provided
you a decision within the statutory timeframe.

 

Current status of your FOI request

 

The department still intends to issue you a decision in relation to your
FOI request. At this time, I am unable to provide you with an expected
date of decision.

 

I will keep you updated as the matter progresses.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the FOI team.

 

FOI Team

Legal, Audit and Assurance Branch | Corporate Division

Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

 

 

Legal In Confidence - This transmission is intended only for the use of
the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged
information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that
any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If
you have received this transmission in error, please notify me immediately
by telephone and delete copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

 

 

 

 

OFFICIAL

Avanithah Selvarajah,

5 Attachments

Our reference: RQ21/00217

Agency reference: LEX67637

Mr Warrick Alexander

Sent by email: [1][FOI #6940 email]

Extension of time application by the Department of Industry, Science,
Energy and Resources

Dear Mr Alexander

 

I write to advise that on 25 January 2021 the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (the OAIC) received an application from the
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the Department)
for an extension of time, to process your FOI request.

 

The Department has applied for an extension of time under s 15AC of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) because it has been unable to
finalise your request within the initial decision period.

 

The Department has advised the OAIC that:

 

o Delays have been encountered in processing your FOI request as the
Department has received multiple FOI requests relating to the same
subject matter. Due to the large volume of these requests, the
Department advises it has faced unavoidable delays in processing this
request.

 

o The Department was impacted by limited staff availability over the
Christmas/New Year shutdown period.

 

o The Department have advised significant progress has been made and it
is confident a decision is made within the requested extension.

 

The Department has requested an extension to 24 February 2021. I will
take any comments you may have to make into account when deciding the
application.

 

Please respond to this email by close of business 29 January 2021. If I do
not hear from you by this date, the decision maker will make a decision on
the basis of the information provided to me by the Department.

 

You will be notified of the decision once the matter has been finalised.

 

Further information about extension of time requests may be found on our
website at [2]Extensions of time.

Contact

If you have any questions about this letter, please contact me on 02 9284
9625 or via email [3][email address]. In all
correspondence please include OAIC reference number at the top of this
letter.

Kind regards

 

[4][IMG]   Avanithah Selvarajah  |  Review and
Investigations Adviser (Legal)
(A/g)

Freedom of information

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [5]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9284 9625 | 
[6][email address]
[10]Subscribe [11]Subscribe to
[7]Facebook | [8]LinkedIn | [9]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

 

 

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Avanithah Selvarajah,

6 Attachments

Our reference: RQ21/00217

Agency reference: LEX67637

Mr Warrick Alexander

Sent by email: [1][FOI #6940 email]

Extension of time under s 15AC

Dear Mr Alexander

 

Please find attached a decision of today’s date.

 

Kind regards,

 

[2][IMG]   Avanithah Selvarajah  |  Review and
Investigations Adviser (Legal)
(A/g)

Freedom of information

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [3]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9284 9625 | 
[4][email address]
[9]Subscribe to
[5]Facebook | [6]LinkedIn | [7]Twitter |   [8]Subscribe icon Information
Matters

 

 

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Freedom of Information, Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources

1 Attachment

Dear Warrick

 

Please find attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request of 2
December 2020.

 

Should you have any queries regarding this matter, please contact the FOI
team.

 

Regards

 

FOI Team

Legal, Audit and Assurance | Corporate & Digital

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601 | [1][Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources request email]

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Warrick Alexander (Account suspended)

Dear Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources's handling of my FOI request 'Apparent conflict in Incubator Support Initiative'.

I did not ask for a report. I asked for a document to be released with all mentions of apparent bias as per request (this is why I addressed the redactions).

It is implied that the department should collate all such mentions for release in a document as per all other requests.

If there are 20 such documents, then that should be released as 1 document as you do for all requests.

I hope that clarifies.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/a...

Yours faithfully,

Warrick Alexander

Christina Graves,

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Internal review of Freedom of Information request Apparent conflict in Incubator Support Initiative.txt

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Dear Mr Alexander

 

The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (the department)
has received your correspondence dated 13 February 2021, in which you
sought an internal review of LEX 67637 (attached).

 

As your internal review request appears to change the scope of your
request in LEX 67637, the department will treat your request for documents
(as set out in your correspondence of 13 February 2021) as a new Freedom
of Information request. The purpose of this email is to acknowledge
receipt of your request.

 

Currently, a decision is due to you by 16 March 2021. However, this
timeline may be affected by the requirement to undertake consultation with
affected third parties, or if the department determines you are liable to
pay a charge in relation to your request. You will be notified by the
department if charges are liable or if a third party consultation is
required.

 

Confirmation of Scope

 

Could you please confirm that you are specifically seeking information
about the date(s) and time(s) of statements made by officers in the Legal,
Audit and Assurance line area that expressly mentions/considers the
possibility/presence of ‘apparent or ‘apprehended’ Regional Incubator
Facilitator bias/conflict (and not the content of the statements
themselves)?

 

Personal information

For documents that fall within the scope of the request, it is the
practice of the department to withhold:

o the names, signatures and contact details of junior staff; that is:

o Commonwealth staff who are not in the Senior Executive Service
(SES); and
o Ministerial staff below the level of Chief of Staff; and

o the mobile phone numbers of SES officers.

 

The names and other details of SES officers will be released unless the
information is exempt from disclosure.

 

Confirmation from you that you are not seeking 'personal information'
(i.e. the names and contact details of any individuals, or any information
that could reasonably identify an individual) may enable a more timely and
cost effective processing of your request.

 

Therefore, could you please confirm if you are happy to exclude personal
information in the documents relating to Commonwealth staff and any other
third party individuals

 

If you are seeking access to specific types of personal information, could
you please specify. If you are not seeking access to any personal
information, you can simply reply to this email with 'no personal
information requested'.

 

Responding to this email

 

Could you please provide the above clarification at your earliest
convenience, but by no later than 1 March 2021.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the department’s FOI Team by
email at [1][email address].

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

____

Christina Graves
Special Counsel
[2][email address]
MinterEllison MinterEllison Building 25 National Circuit Forrest ACT 2603
[3]minterellison.com Follow us on [4]LinkedIn and [5]Twitter

MinterEllison has a [6]24-hour chatbot helpline offering guidance on a
range of COVID-19 related topics and a COVID-19 Hub [7]on our website.

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Freedom of Information, Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources

1 Attachment

Good afternoon Mr Alexander

Please find attached the decision on your FOI request 68141.

Regards

FOI Team
Legal, Audit and Assurance | Corporate & Digital
GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources | www.industry.gov.au

Supporting economic growth and job creation for all Australians

Legal In Confidence - This transmission is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any use or dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify me immediately by telephone and delete copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
OFFICIAL