Correspondence relating to 'righttoknow.org.au'
Dear Australian Taxation Office,
Please provide any documents and correspondence to and from the Office of The Information Commissioner, pertaining to the website 'righttoknow.org.au'.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Tonoli
Dear Mr Tonoli,
The ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au.
Please send your FOI request direct to [1][ATO request email], or lodge via
paper form available at
[2]https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con....
Alternatively, you can contact the ATO on 13 28 69 and ask for Freedom of
Information.
Please note there are some documents relevant to your request published on
the [3]ATO Disclosure Log
Regards,
FOI team
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IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
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References
Visible links
1. mailto:[ATO request email]
2. https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Con...
3. https://www.ato.gov.au/about-ato/access,...
Dear FOI,
Hello, and thanks for the response.
I notice your reply states that the ATO does not process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au, yet there has been no lawful reason provided why this is the case. In addition, the email address provided in your response is the same email address that my request was sent from via Right to Know.
The response from the ATO, dated 16th of March shows acknowledgement and receipt of my request, I do not consent to a time extension, and inline with the original request date, the ATO must respond to my request by the 19th of April.
I respectfully request that you process with this lawful request.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Tonoli
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
The Information Commissioner has made a formal recommendation to the ATO to start processing to Freedom of Information requests made via Right to Know. More Information on this can be found here: https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org....
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
My comment is an addition to the comments by Mr. Fairless. I also make a specific suggestion.
Although the Australian Taxation Office wrote to the applicant to say that the Office would not process the application, something did happen. The thing that happened was that 30 days after the date when the application was lodged, section 15AC(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) had the effect of making a "deemed decision" to refuse the request ... this is unless the Commissioner grants more time.
Because of the effect of the Act, I make the following suggestions to the applicant:
(1) Do not write to the Australian Taxation Office and complain that a decision on your request is "overdue". It is not. A deemed decision was made 30 days after you lodged the application.
(2) Instead, use this Right to Know page (or you can create a new request page) to write exactly the same request to the Australian Taxation Office. If you want to grumble, then you can always say (in the new request email) that you made the same request earlier on this-and-then date.
I make this suggestion because if you only write and complain that your request is "overdue", then after a delay, the Australian Taxation Office might (correctly) write back to you and say, "No it is not". Of course, the purpose of this would be to delay to process your request (because the office will now have suddenly a lot of requests) but it will still have the effect that you must lodge a new request. Therefore, you can lose nothing to use this Right to Know page to make a new request now! It will start the clock again.
Dear FOI Applicant,
Please see the attachment.
Yours faithfully,
FOI Team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
*********************************************************************
Dear FOI Applicant,
Please see attachment.
Yours faithfully,
FOI Team
**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT
The information transmitted is for the use of the intended
recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally
privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in
reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other
than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in
severe penalties. If you have received this e-mail in error
please notify the Privacy Hotline of the Australian Taxation
Office, telephone 1300 661 542 and delete all copies of this
transmission together with any attachments.
*********************************************************************
JS left an annotation ()
Pages 3 to 7 (at least) of ATO’s responses to FOI applications by Ato Nduvho and Mark Newton would appear to fall within your FOI request.
Mark R. Diamond left an annotation ()
Yet another example of ATO officers not doing their duty according to law. A notice (possibly a correctly formed decision notice, but possibly not) has been sent by the ATO to itself (i.e., to another ATO website) where the applicant can (possibly) view it.
James Baldwin left an annotation ()
Just go straight to the Information Commissioner. You won't get any joy from ATO through this site.