Dear Mr Roth

ABC FOI 202425-027

The ABC refers to your request received on Wednesday, 25 August 2024
seeking access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to:

I am seeking copies of electronic correspondence (such as emails and text
messages) between the ABC and The Australia Institute, sent or received
between 1 January 2024 to 31 July 2024.

We wish to clarify the scope of your request so that we can search for the
documents that you seek.  Could you please specify the names of the ABC
staff or business units so that we can effectively and efficiently locate
and identify the documents. Please feel free to provide us with any
additional information which can assist us in progressing this request.

If you wish to discuss this matter via phone call, please let us know your
contact number and a suitable time to call.

Once you have clarified the scope of your request, the 30-day processing
period will commence.

Many thanks.

Kind regards

Uma

ABC FOI Team

02 8333 3328

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Dear Mr Roth

ABC FOI 202425-027

Thank you for clarifying your request. The clarified request is for the
following documents:

copies of electronic correspondence (such as emails and text messages)
between the News, Analysis and Investigations division of the ABC and The
Australia Institute, sent or received between 1 January 2024 to 31 July
2024.

A decision on your request is due by Thursday 10 October 2024, subject to
any suspension of the processing period or extension of time under the FOI
Act.

The ABC will advise you if third-party consultation is required.  Please
note that if any part of this request yields a large number of documents,
we will come back to you under ss 24 and 24AB to discuss possibilities of
further revising the scope of this request.

By making an FOI request, you are providing personal information to the
ABC. The ABC manages personal information in accordance with its Privacy
Policy - available at [1]ABC Privacy Policy – ABC Help - Australian
Broadcasting Corporation Help Centre. Personal information may be
disclosed in the course of processing this request, such as for the
purposes of consultation or internal reporting.

The ABC will consider your request in accordance with the FOI Act and
provide you with a decision as soon as practicable. 

Many thanks.

Kind regards

Uma

ABC FOI Team

02 8333 3328

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Dear Mr Roth

ABC FOI 202425-027

We made enquiries with the relevant business unit of the ABC to locate the
documents.

We have been advised the terms of the request in the current form would
require asking the entire News division of 2000 people.  Could you please
advise if you are able to narrow the scope, and specify the names of the
ABC staff or positions titles? This would assist the ABC in not having a
substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources.

Please also note that the ABC’s News, Analysis & Investigation unit is now
called the ABC News.

If you wish to discuss this matter via phone call, please let us know your
contact number and a suitable time to call.

Many thanks.

Kind regards

Uma

ABC FOI Team

02 8333 3328

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Dear Mr Roth,  

ABC FOI 202425-027 

The ABC is required to consult with a third party under s 27 of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act) to seek their views on the
release of information you have requested. 

This means that your request is due by Monday 11 November 2024 as the
timeframe is automatically extended by 30 days under the Act.  

It is optional to be identified as the FOI applicant for the purposes of
consultation. If you consent to this, please let us know by return email.
  

Yours sincerely, 

Jessica 

ABC FOI Team 

02 8333 3317

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ABC FOI 202425-027

Good afternoon Mr Roth

The ABC is advanced at processing your request, however there are a large
number of search results requiring review and consultation.

Under s 15AA of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act, it is
possible to agree an extension of time for processing for up to 30 days.

We would be grateful if you would consider agreeing a new due date of
Tuesday 26 November, or if possible a later date to accommodate the work
required to complete this file.

If you are happy to allow the ABC more time, this agreement needs to be
documented by email by Monday 11 November (which is the current due date).

We look forward to hearing from you about a due date you may be happy
with.

Many thanks for your consideration,

ABC FOI team

13 9994

This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee.
It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not
read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of
the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you
have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know
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ABC FOI 202425-027

Good afternoon Mr Roth

Thank you kindly for agreeing an extension of time until 26 November.

We would like to clarify a procedural point with you to make sure we are
processing this file correctly.

On 10 September you replied to Uma to narrow the scope to cover electronic
communciations held within the News team of the ABC that were sent to or
from the Australia Institute (paraphrased).

When Uma replied to you on 11 and 12 September 2024, she did not mention
that she had taken these proposed amendments to mean you had withdrawn the
original scope of 25 August and replaced it instead with a new scope
starting on 10 September (which was further claified on 12 Septmber). I
have compiled these exchanges with you to be a scope that reads that you
are seeking:

…copies of electronic correspondence (such as emails and text messages)
between the ABC News team (especially online content makers in News) and
The Australia Institute, sent or received from 1 January to 31 July 2024
inclusive.

Would you kindly confirm this matches what you are seeking?

If so, can you please document that you have withdrawn the earlier 25
August scope by making changes in September?

Alternatively, if this is not accurate, please let us know whether any
changes are required.

We are wanting to ensure the search results do what you are looking for.
If you could please respond by Monday morning, that would be great,

If you would like to chat by phone, our direct line is published here:
[1]Freedom of Information - About the ABC

Thanks so much for your patience.

Many thanks,

ABC FOI team

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First
Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.

This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee.
It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not
read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of
the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you
have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know
by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.

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Good evening Mr Roth

ABC FOI 202425-027

The ABC would be grateful if you may consider granting a second extension
of time (as it is permitted by the FOI Act) such that a decision would be
due on Wednesday 11 December 2024.

The ABC has done searches based on the general information you have given
however we wonder if you may be able to give further direction about who
may have been contacted by the ABC in the 7 month period you have
nominated (1 January to 31 July 2024).

Casting a very broad net across News we have not found relevant emails.

Was there a particular piece of reporting that you had seen during this
time?

Due to ABC content makers having multi faceted roles, there are a large
number of staff who form part of the News team and publish online as part
of their role so we would need to target searches to individuals if
possible or related to content that is already online.

Are there particular content makers you have seen publishing about The
Australia Institute?

It may help to have a conversation about what you are looking for so that
we can best help you. Would it suit you to call us tomorrow?

Or we are happy to call you if that suits you better,

Many thanks,

ABC FOI team

13 9994

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Dear Mr Roth

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Can you please confirm if you are happy to grant the extension to 11 December? If yes, we will need this documented by return email by tomorrow.

Are you happy if the ABC searches the mailbox of those 2 journalists instead of the broader news team? This would help us finalise your request on time, and we could look at adding more searches via a new request in the future.

Many thanks,

ABC FOI team

13 9994

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ABC FOI 202425-027

Good afternoon Mr Roth

Thank you for confirming, we have processed the agreed extension until Wednesday 11 December 2024.

Based on the parameters of your request specifying the 'digital news team' especially, that team has stated there was no search results within the timeframe from members of that team.

Distinct from that area of the ABC are other articles published online. Online stories do not exclusively come from the 'Digital news" team organisationally as our content makers include multi platform staff.

As noted in our earlier responses, the wider ABC content makers amount to thousands of staff nationally making the searches a potential diversion of resources without more specificity as these staff are required to focus on content making on a daily basis.

Thank you for previously agreeing to help refine and focus your request including supplying the google results for the 7 month period that refer to the Australia Institute within an ABC story.

Yesterday, you noted 2 members of the Australia Institute, Greg Jericho and Richard Dennis, as being referenced in the ABC's stories.

Would you be happy to narrow searches to one of these parties as sending or receiving an email from either a member of the ABC News team or about a particular story or stories?

Or would you be happy to identify a few stories (by direct link) and then we can approach the particular content maker/s to ask for their communications in preparing the story. We would then assess for exemptions.

It goes beyond the requirements of the FOI Act for the FOI team or News team to search through google results to locate which journalists may have published a story. Section 15 of the FOI Act requires enough clarity be provided so that documents can reasonably be located.

Before we look at how to focus further searches for you, if electronic communications relate to preparing and publishing a story, they are usually considered to be the ABC's program material.

The ABC's program material falls outsides of the FOI regime under s 7(2) of the FOI Act. This is why we thought it may help to speak by phone about what you are after. Any documents found to be program material would not be provided under FOI.

Many thanks,

ABC FOI team

13 9994 

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.

This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.

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