Corruption at the APSC – John Lloyd, Marco Spaccavento, the Liberal Party and the IPA
Former APSC senior executive Marco Spaccavento was the right-hand man and trusted commandant to former Public Service Commissioner and all-round evil, corrupt Liberal Party / IPA grub, John Lloyd.
John Lloyd was politically appointed to the position of Public Service Commissioner on the basis of his membership of the Liberal Party as well as alt-right group, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). The IPA is generally understood to be the white-supremacist arm of the Liberal and National Parties.
Mr Spaccavento worked closely with John Lloyd and Mr Lloyd’s colleagues at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) to successfully implement the Liberal Party/IPA’s ideological agenda of imposing massive real wage reductions for non-SES public servants while at the same time giving massive real wage increases to SES public servants.
See here, for example, where Mr Spaccavento provides taxpayer funded research and authoring services to a neo-nazi at the IPA: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/3...
Another example is Mr Spaccavento’s work on a document that was prepared and provided exclusively to the IPA such that they could lead the attack, along with John Lloyd and other corrupt Liberal party grubs, on the living standards of non-SES public servants.
It was the taxpayer funded preparation and provision of that work to the IPA that led to John Lloyd formally being found to be a corrupt – an outcome that everyone honest and ethical public servant was well aware of for years, before that finding formally was made. And an outcome that led to John Lloyd, the now proven corrupt faecal stain, resigning from his position in disgrace.
On page 95 of this package of documents released under FOI here: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/4...
Marco Spaccavento jokes around with a fellow former APSC employee, when preparing the document that was ultimately exclusively provided to John Lloyd’s IPA colleagues. Mr Lloyd had asked Spaccavento to prepare an article to attack the working conditions of non-SES public servants or what Lloyd calls ‘soft’ agreements. Mr Spaccavento jokes that would include ‘most of the CSIRO agreement’.
It didn’t take long for Mr Spaccavento’s work to bear fruit. This article published in the Australian in early 2017: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/... and titled “CSIRO top brass rake it in as staff get the chop” states:
“Executive earnings at CSIRO have risen 30 per cent over three years, at the same time staff salaries were frozen and more than one in five workers lost their jobs.
Figures from the science agency’s latest annual report show the austerity demanded of staff has not extended to management, with average executive packages rising $90,000 a year to more than $390,000.
Meanwhile, staff earnings have not risen since a 3.5 per cent increase in July 2013. Since then, the salary of a typical Level 4 officer has been capped at $88,787 — less than the average increase in executive remuneration.
The executive earnings included $590,000 in performance bonuses in 2015-16 — a horror year in which the agency was ¬denounced internationally for cutting climate-science jobs and condemned in two reports.”
Job well done Marco Spaccavento, John Lloyd, the IPA and the Liberal Party!!!
Under the FOI Act, I seek a copy of any document prepared by the APSC from 1 January 2023 onwards, and provided to any of the following:
i) media organisations,
ii) Commonwealth agency heads, or
iii) lobby groups such as the IPA or the Centre for Independent studies
in relation to the working conditions of the non-SES APS employees.
I only seek copies of documents that fall within the scope of my request that have not been otherwise made publicly available by the APSC.
Yours faithfully,
NTS
OFFICIAL
Good Afternoon,
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 for access to documents held by the Australian Public
Service Commission (The Commission).
The timeframe for responding to your request is 30 days from the date of
receipt. Therefore, the due date for this request is 7 October 2023.
This timeframe may be extended in certain circumstances. You will be
notified if these circumstances arise and the timeframe is extended.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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OFFICIAL
Good afternoon,
Please find attached a request consultation notice in relation to your
recent freedom of information request.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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Thank you for your correspondence.
Pursuant to paragraph 24AB(6)(b) of the FOI Act, I revise my request such I now seek:
A copy of any document prepared by the APSC from 1 January 2023 onwards, and provided to:
i) media organisations, or
ii) the Institute of Public Affairs (ie. www.ipa.org.au)
in relation to the working conditions of the non-SES APS employees.
I’m willing to exclude from my request, the personal information of any person who isn’t, or wasn’t at the relevant time, a Commonwealth public servant or a statutory officer. Noting paragraphs 6.153 and 6.154 of the FOI Guidelines issued under s.93A of the FOI Act, there’ll therefore be no need to consult with any person whose personal information is included in a relevant document.
To the extent relevant documents are held, they’ll be held by the APSC’s media team, the Executive/Commissioner’s office and/or the workplace relations teams.
There can no legal basis (noting the obligations imposed on a decision maker by operation of s.13 of the Public Service Act 1999) upon which the APSC would hold a relevant document that has been provided to a media organisation and/or the Institute of Public Affairs, but that could not be provided in response to this FOI request.
Having regard to the APSC’s rich recent history of politically motivated corruption, I urge the decision-maker to respond to this FOI request as if they were a honest, apolitical and ethical public servant that conducts themselves with integrity.
Yours sincerely,
NTS
OFFICIAL
Dear Applicant,
Please find attached a decision notice in relation to your recent freedom
of information request.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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Dear FOI,
Under the FOI Act, I seek a copy of any document prepared by the APSC from 1 January 2023 onwards, and provided to:
i) the Institute of Public Affairs; and/or
ii) the Centre for Independent Studies;
in relation to the working conditions of the non-SES APS employees.
I’m willing to exclude from my request, the personal information of any person who isn’t, or wasn’t at the relevant time, a Commonwealth public servant or a statutory officer. Noting paragraphs 6.153 and 6.154 of the FOI Guidelines issued under s.93A of the FOI Act, there’ll therefore be no need to consult with any person whose personal information is included in a relevant document.
Relevant documents can be readily identified by searching for emails containing 'ipa.org.au' and 'cis.org.au'. I'm happy tro provide further information setting out the wide public interest in documents the subject of my request by reference to acts of corruption engaged in by current and former APSC staff in their dealings with those organisations.
Yours sincerely,
NTS
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon,
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 for access to documents held by the Australian Public
Service Commission (The Commission).
The timeframe for responding to your request is 30 days from the date of
receipt. Therefore, the due date for this request is Tuesday 7 November
2023.
This timeframe may be extended in certain circumstances. You will be
notified if these circumstances arise and the timeframe is extended.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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attachments to a third party.
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OFFICIAL
Good morning,
Please find attached a decision notice in relation to your recent freedom
of information request.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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with APSC Legal Services before using disclosing any part of this email or
attachments to a third party.
______________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
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The following is a: i) request made under the FOI Act for access to documents held by the APSC; and ii) a request for internal review of the practical refusal decision with reference ‘LEX 640’ made by Ms Melanie McIntyre and sent to me on 9 October 2023.
FOI Request
I refer to the practical refusal decision with reference ‘LEX 640’ made by Melanie McIntyre.
I note that paragraph 3.121 of the FOI Guidelines made by the Information Commissioner pursuant to s.93A of the FOI Act requires that a sampling process involving 10%-20% of the documents captured by a request be undertaken for the purposes of determining whether the work involved in processing a request would constitute a substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources from the agency’s other operations.
I note the Guidelines further require that a person with appropriate knowledge or expertise should assess the sample of the documents, looking at each document as if they were making a decision on access, including indicating the number of documents that could be released in an edited form.
I note the application of s.9A of the FOI Act and the related obligations imposed on Ms McIntyre by ss.13(1),(2) and (4) of the Public Service Act 1999 as well as rules 3.1, 4.1.2, 4.1.4, 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 of the Legal Profession (Solicitors) Conduct Rules 2015
Under the FOI Act, I seek a copy of any document that sets out the sampling undertaken or any other methodology relied upon by Ms McIntyre in making her practical refusal decision with reference ‘LEX 640’.
Internal Review Request
I seek internal review of the practical refusal decision with reference ‘LEX 640’ made by Melanie McIntyre.
The application to which that decision relates, in its initial form, sought access to:
“cop[ies] of any document prepared by the APSC from 1 January 2023 onwards, and provided to any of the following:
i) media organisations,
ii) Commonwealth agency heads, or
iii) lobby groups such as the IPA or the Centre for Independent studies
in relation to the working conditions of the non-SES APS employees. “
As a result of a request consultation process, the entities to which my request relates were narrowed to:
“i)media organisations, or
ii) the Institute of Public Affairs “
In her decision with reference ‘LEX 677’ Ms McIntyre confirmed that there were no relevant documents in the APSC’s possession that were prepared for the Institute of Public Affairs meaning that Ms McIntyres practical refusal decision relates solely to ‘document[s] prepared by the APSC from 1 January 2023 onwards, and provided to….media organisations…in relation to the working conditions of non-SES APS employees.’
I note that all APSC media requests and responses are dealt with by the APSC’s media team and that staff within that team would have the requisite knowledge to readily identify and locate documents within that fell within the scope of my request. I further note that on 28 September I made clear that I was willing to treat, as irrelevant to my request, the personal information of any person who isn’t, or wasn’t at the relevant time, a Commonwealth public servant or a statutory officer. And that noting paragraphs 6.153 and 6.154 of the FOI Guidelines there’ll therefore be no need to consult with any person whose personal information is included in a relevant document.
I otherwise note there can otherwise be no legitimate basis upon which a document falling within the scope of my request would need to be consulted upon or otherwise be exempted in lawful reliance on an exemption established by the FOI Act. That is, there cannot be any lawful scenario where the APSC would provide information to media organisations in relation to the working conditions of non-SES APS employees but could not disclose that very same information publicly.
Further, I consider there to be a wide public interest in the documents the subject of my request and I am of the view that the decision-maker has refused access to the documents on the basis they may or will demonstrate that the APSC has engaged in unlawful conduct. The basis of that view is as follows.
In 2018, former Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd was formally found to be corrupt as a consequence of using tax-payer resources to conduct research and authoring services for far right, neo-fascist, Liberal Party affiliated lobby group, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). That work was conducted exclusively for the IPA for the purpose of attacking the living standards of non-SES public servants to serve the political and personal interests of John Lloyd, the IPA and the Liberal Party as well as the personal and professional interests of the APSC’s senior management team who were complicit in that corruption.
That practice has continued under Deputy Commissioner Peter Riordan who, as demonstrated by this article: https://www.themandarin.com.au/234188-ta... has again contravened the Public Service Act 1999 by perpetuating false and misleading information in an attempt to implement further reductions in living standards for non-SES public servants in order to advance his own professional and political interests.
This FOI request: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p... is yet another example demonstrating that Peter Riordan has breached the APS Code of Conduct by engaging is dishonest and deceptive conduct to in order implement massive reductions in living standards for non-SES public servants in order to advance his own professional and political interests
There’s a wide public interest in the documents the subject of my request given the likelihood those documents will demonstrate that the APSC has engaged in misconduct - specifically engaging in further acts of dishonesty and deception in order to bring about outcomes to serve the poltical and personal interests of the APSC's senior management group. That likelihood is a necessary consequence of the APSC’s recent history of repeatedly engaging in unlawful conduct in the course of enterprise agreement negotiations - negotiations that were on foot at the time of my application and as they remain today.
For the reasons set out above, I am of the view that Ms McIntyre’s access refusal decision was made absent a lawful basis and should be set aside as an outcome of a properly conducted internal review made in response to this application.
Regards
Yours sincerely,
NTS
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon,
The Australian Public Service Commission (the Commission) is writing to
acknowledge receipt of your request for internal review under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
The timeframe for responding to your internal review request is 30 days
from the date of receipt. This timeframe for internal review may be
extended in very limited circumstances. You will be notified if these
circumstances arise and the timeframe is extended.
Please note that there is a new LEX number for your internal review
request. All future correspondences will be referred under LEX 705.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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______________________________________________________________________
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OFFICIAL
Good afternoon,
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 for access to documents held by the Australian Public
Service Commission (The Commission).
The timeframe for responding to your request is 30 days from the date of
receipt. Therefore, the due date for this request is Friday 8 December
2023.
This timeframe may be extended in certain circumstances. You will be
notified if these circumstances arise and the timeframe is extended.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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OFFICIAL
Dear applicant,
Please find attached a notice of decision in relation to your recent
freedom of information request.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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OFFICIAL
Dear Applicant,
Please find attached a notice of decision and documents in relation to
your recent request for internal review.
Kind Regards,
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3813 w: [1]www.apsc.gov.au
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This email and any attachments may contain confidential or legally
privileged information, and neither are waived or lost if the email has
been sent in error. If you have received this email in error, please
delete it (including any copies) and notify the sender. Please consult
with APSC Legal Services before using disclosing any part of this email or
attachments to a third party.
______________________________________________________________________
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that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
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A belated thank you for your internal review decision Dr Steele – it’s nice to see the APSC take its first, baby steps, towards moving ever so slightly towards becoming an apolitical Commonwealth agency that conducts itself with, at least some, integrity.
I’ve one observation to express though in respect of your FOI decision with reference LEX 706. Conspicuous by its absence from your decision is any reference, whatsoever, to the estimate arrived at by the APSC’s General Counsel, Ms Melanie McIntyre, in her letter of 27 September 2023 here: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/1...
Ms Mcintyre estimated that it would take 230 hours to process my request.
Notwithstanding Ms Mcintyre's letter containing that estimate would ordinarily be a key document responsive to my FOI request, you've presumably passed over it because it’s simply impossible for a reasonable and honest person to attempt to justify or explain how Ms McIntyre arrived at the conclusion that it would take one APSC staff member, working full time and continuously on my request for close to seven weeks (!!!), in order to process it.
That omission, on your part, can be explained in only one of two ways:
i) you’ve either inadvertently overlooked Ms McIntyre’s estimate document in your decision; or
ii) you couldn’t bring yourself to even attempt to justify that estimate knowing full well Ms McIntyre pulled that figure out of her proverbial - in which case the APSC’s General Counsel is corrupt by virtue of having necessarily contravened subsections 13(1), 13(2), 13(4), 13(8), 13(9) and 13(11) of the Public Service Act 1999 as well as rules 4.1 and 5.1 of the Legal Profession (Solicitors) Conduct Rules 2015.
I think we both know the more likely of those two alternatives.