In regards to the review of the Higher Education Participation Program
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
You may recollect we wrote you October 23rd, 2016 in regards to the review of the Higher Education Participation Program. You wrote us November 12th, 2016 to tell us ACIL Allens would give a "Final Evaluation Report" to the DoE about that date.
We request access under administrative arrangements, if possible, a copy of the report. If it is not possible to give access under administrative arrangements please treat this request as an FOI request.
Thank you.
P. Gale (Mrs.)
V. Wilson
April 20th, 2017.
Dear Mrs Gale and V. Wilson,
Thank you for your email.
We are considering whether administrative access to the document can be
granted and will let you know as soon as possible.
If we are not able to provide access under administrative arrangements, we
will advise you and treat your email as an FOI request from that date.
Kind regards
FOI Team
Department of Education and Training
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
We refer to your email of the 27th ult. in light of which we ask you now to treat our request as a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The factor that has led us to alter our earlier (administrative) request is your indication you would treat our request as an FOI request only from the date (as yet unknown) when you might decide that you cannot deal with it administratively. That would have the potential to delay a formal decision for a further 30 days after a yet-to-be decided date; hardly a satisfactory state of affairs.
Your department has already announced (https://docs.education.gov.au/node/43531 ) the Australian government intends to "deliver three [!!!] funding streams to universities" under the Participation Program, and this without giving the taxpayer even a whiff of evidence that the previous single funding stream has done the slightest good. If the evaluation report unexpectedly delivers robust evidence to show a national benefit from six years of bleeding-heart profligacy, we will be chastened and cheered. Alternatively, we'll see that the Australian taxpayer has gotten very very little for very very much and that the profligacy is to continue unabated.
Thank you.
P. Gale (Mrs.)
V. Wilson
May 4th, 2017.
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson
We refer to your email below seeking access under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the following document (described
in your email of 20 April 2017):
the ACIL Allens “Final Evaluation Report” (provided to the department
circa November 12^th, 2016) in regards to the review of the Higher
Education Participation Program. [paraphrased]
The Department of Education and Training has received your request and
will process it in accordance with the FOI Act.
If you have any questions about your request, please contact us via email:
[1][email address]
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education and Training
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson,
We refer to your email below seeking access under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the following document (described
in your email of 20 April 2017):
the ACIL Allens “Final Evaluation Report” (provided to the department
circa November 12th, 2016) in regards to the review of the Higher
Education Participation Program. [paraphrased]
The department has now published the report on the following website:
[1]https://docs.education.gov.au/node/43911
As the report is now publicly available, we assume you withdraw your FOI
request.
Kind regards
FOI Team
Department of Education and Training
From: Education - FOI
Sent: Friday, 5 May 2017 10:07 AM
To: '[FOI #3430 email]'
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - In regards to the review of
the Higher Education Participation Program [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Dear Mrs Gale and V Wilson
We refer to your email below seeking access under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the following document (described
in your email of 20 April 2017):
the ACIL Allens “Final Evaluation Report” (provided to the department
circa November 12^th, 2016) in regards to the review of the Higher
Education Participation Program. [paraphrased]
The Department of Education and Training has received your request and
will process it in accordance with the FOI Act.
If you have any questions about your request, please contact us via email:
[2][email address]
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education and Training
To: The FOI Contact Officer
Department of Education
Dear FOI Contact Officer,
I refer to your email of May 22nd, 2017. The public availability of the report is appreciated and you are correct to treat our FOI request as withdrawn.
We have, however, a comment. We note the document now publicly available at the webpage you reference has the name "final_heppp_evaluation_report_2017.03.16_0.docx", suggesting it was available at least so early as March 16th. Internal details of the document confirm that fact. We requested administrative access April 20th but even by May 4th you could not confirm we would obtain administrative access. Then, without forewarening, according to the creation date on the reference webpage, the document was released (administratively) May 19th. One is left to wonder what course events would have taken had someone made a straightforward FOI request, with no administrative access option, March 17th!
But to reiterate, we appreciate the release.
Thank you,
P. Gale (Mrs.)
May 25th, 2017