Dear Minister for the Public Service,

Under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 the accountable authority of each entity has a Duty to establish and maintain systems relating to risk and control. Under the Public Service Act the responsibilities of the Secretary of a Department include implementing measures directed at ensuring that the Department complies with the law. The Code of Conduct for the Australian Public Service requires that an employee must act with care and diligence in connection with APS employment.

{Published in The Mandarin November 22, 2019}
Complying with the Freedom of Information Act is a second-order priority for the Minister and the Department of Home Affairs, according to secretary Michael Pezzullo, who thinks his FOI team’s performance is “commendable” considering the limited resources it has to work with. The secretary will not allocate more resources to FOI processing or ask for more from the government for that purpose, despite the Office of the Information Commissioner moving to investigate his department’s persistent non-compliance with aspects of the FOI Act.

The FOI Act requires agencies to publish information in a disclosure log within 10 working days after the freedom of information (FOI) applicant was 'given access' to a document. Parliament, Ministers and the public expect that Commonwealth Agencies will respect and comply with Commonwealth Law. The Department of Home Affairs has failed to comply with the law on numerous occasions since December 2017.

Under FOI I seek access to documents concerning or relating to the FOI disclosure log maintained by the Department of Home Affairs. The period of the request is December 2017 to the date of this request.

Yours faithfully,

JS

I understand Integrity has been dropped from the name of the office.

Dear FOI,

An agency or minister who receives a request may transfer the request, or part of the request, to another agency or minister with their agreement if:
• the document is not in the first agency or minister’s possession but is to their knowledge in the possession of another agency or minister, or
• the subject matter of the document is more closely connected with the functions of another agency or minister (s 16(1)).

It is implicit in those requirements that a request cannot be transferred solely as a matter of administrative convenience, or because another agency or minister produced the document requested or also has a copy of it. Equally, before a decision is made to transfer a request an agency or minister should take whatever reasonable steps are necessary to ascertain whether they have the documents that may meet the description in the FOI request.

Agencies should analyse the terms of the request broadly, avoiding a technical, narrow or legalistic approach. The request seeks seek access to documents concerning or relating to the FOI disclosure log maintained by the Department of Home Affairs.

The FOI Act requires agencies to publish information in a disclosure log within 10 working days after the freedom of information (FOI) applicant was 'given access' to a document. Parliament, Ministers and the public expect that Commonwealth Agencies will respect and comply with Commonwealth Law.

Dept of Home Affairs Disclosure Log 30 June 2020 FA 20/05/00004
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/foi/files...
Documents Released E-mails providing confirmation of disclosure log publication.

The released emails(68 pages) reveal a system to upload documents to the Disclosure Log being implemented at the administrative convenience of the Department with no apparent effort made to ensure that the Department complied with the law. It is a challenge to identify instances where the Department complies with the law. No such challenge to identify instances of the Department failing to comply with the law. Some examples, the released emails reveal that between late December 2019 and 27 Feb 2020 more than 100 new items were logged in the 2019 Disclosure Log. In that brief period at least 100 entries reflecting failure by the Department to comply with the law. A few other examples:

On 5 Jan 2016 the Department granted access to documents under FOI. The release was not reflected in the Disclosure Log until 2 Feb 2018.

On 19 Aug 2016 the Department granted access to documents under FOI. The release was not reflected in the Disclosure Log until 2 Feb 2018.

On 18 Dec 2017 the Department granted access to documents under FOI. The release was not reflected in the Disclosure Log until 2 Feb 2018.

On 25 Sept 2018 the Department granted access to documents under FOI. The release was not reflected in the Disclosure Log until September 2019.

On 3 Apr 2018 the Department granted access to documents under FOI. The release was not reflected in the disclosure log until 3 Aug 2018 and then only after someone within the Department made a request for an urgent to the log. Given the nature of the documents released in April one is left to ponder whether the public controversy involving the Minister Dutton and the grant of visas for au pairs had a bearing on the “urgency” in August.

On 16 August 2018 the Department granted access to documents under FOI. The release was not reflected in the disclosure log until 23 October 2018 – or so it seems in the disclosed documents. In August 2019 the Minister caused documents to be produced to the Senate. Included in the documents is the following:
A copy of the Paladin Holdings PTE Ltd PNG Services Contract (which only removed
commercial in confidence information), was made available on 16 August 2018 in the FOI
disclosure log on the Department’s website, which is available to the public.

The Department of Home Affairs has failed to comply with the law on numerous occasions since December 2017. Documents concerning or relating to the failure by the Department of Home Affairs to maintain a disclosure log in accordance with the FOI Act would fall within scope. It is unreasonable to conclude that the Minister for the Public Service has no function or responsibility in relation to Commonwealth Agencies complying (or not complying) with the law or that the subject matter of documents within scope of the FOI request is more closely connected with the functions of the Department of Home Affairs.

Yours sincerely,

JS

Dear FOI,

The FOI request transferred to the Department of Home Affairs has been withdrawn.

https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/d...

Yours sincerely,

JS