OFFICIAL

Reference: FOI/2023/138

Dear Gemma

Thank you for your email of 10 May 2023, in which you made a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to the Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department).

Administrative access – public material

The Department publishes is Procedures for determining breaches of the APS
Code of Conduct and the imposition of sanctions, you can find the current
version on our website at [1]Procedures for determining breaches of the
APS Code of Conduct and the imposition of sanctions | PM&C (pmc.gov.au)

As this document can be provided to you under administrative access, and
through the provision of the above link, we will not be including a
decision on access to this document as part of the FOI decision. Material
maintained by agencies for reference purposes and which is publicly
available is not subject to the FOI Act (section 4 of the FOI Act refers).

Terms of the FOI request

In light of the above, we note the Department has accepted the following
parts of your request to be subject to the FOI Act:

2. Please provide a copy of the department’s current social media policy
(which covers departmental use and/or private use by employees in an
individual capacity).

3. Provide a provide a copy of the department’s current guidance material
which is available for employees to make informed decisions about their
private social media use.

4. Provide a copy of guidance/information provided to your employees
regarding expectations on their conduct in the lead up to the Voice
Referendum.

5. Please advise:

A) In the last 6 months, have you received a complaint regarding social
media post made by an employee?

B) In the last 6 months, how many complaints have you received regarding
social media post made by your employees?

Timeframe for receiving your decision

The 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the
day after the Department received your request, you should therefore
expect a decision from us by 9 June 2023.  The processing period of 30
days may be extended in certain circumstances and we will write to you
separately regarding any extension of time.

Charges

Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department decides that you
are liable to pay a charge, we will send you a preliminary assessment of
the charge as soon as possible.

Publication of documents

Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[2]https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/depart...,
subject to certain exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any
objections to the publication of any of the information which may be
released to you please contact us by email at [3][DPMC request email].  If you
do wish to object to the publication of information, you would need to
provide supporting reasons.

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details

For documents that fall within scope of the request, it is the
Department’s policy to withhold:

·       any person’s signature;

·       the names and contact details of Australian Public Service
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES);

·       the mobile or direct numbers of SES officers;

·       the names and contact details of Ministerial staff at a level
below Chief of Staff.

If you consider that the information categorised above is relevant to the
terms of your request please let us know at [4][DPMC request email], otherwise
we will take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the
scope of your request (that is, the information will be treated as
irrelevant and deleted from any documents for release). The names and
other details of SES officers will not be withheld unless there is some
reason for that information to be exempt from release.

Further information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
[5]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor....

Yours sincerely

Janelle

Adviser | FOI Section[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country, One National Circuit  Barton  ACT  2600  |  PO Box
6500  CANBERRA  ACT  2600
e. [6][email address]  w. [7]pmc.gov.au

[8]cid:image001.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0[9]cid:image002.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0

[10]cid:image003.jpg@01D78E24.FF2DAFB0 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
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,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. https://www.pmc.gov.au/publications/proc...
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/depart...
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
4. mailto:[DPMC request email]
5. https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...
6. mailto:[email address]
7. https://www.pmc.gov.au/
8. https://twitter.com/pmc_gov_au
9. https://www.linkedin.com/company/departm...

OFFICIAL

Dear Gemma,

Please see the attached correspondence regarding your Freedom of
Information request.

Yours sincerely,

Tina

Adviser

Freedom of Information (FOI)| Legal Policy Branch[]

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

p. (02) 6271 5849

Ngunnawal Country | One National Circuit Barton ACT 2600 | PO Box
6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600
e. [1][email address]  w. [2]pmc.gov.au

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D888E5.6B56D250 The
Department
acknowledges
and pays
respect to
the past,
present and
emerging
Elders and
Traditional
Custodians
of Country,
and the
continuation
of cultural,
spiritual
and
educational
practices of
Aboriginal
and Torres
Strait
Islander
peoples.

______________________________________________________________________ 
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,
you 
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other 
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you 
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by 
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the 
message from your computer system. 
______________________________________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.pmc.gov.au/