Is your Department in possession of the following NBN design standard document?
Dear Department of Communications and the Arts,
Are you in posession of the following document?
Design and architecture decisions for MTM Distribution Fibre Network (DFN) - named document;NBN-NTO-EDS-359 Network Design Rules MTM Distribution Fibre Network
Yours faithfully,
Timothy Nothdurft
Dear Timothy
This request is for a document in the possession of/related to NBN. Information about requesting documents from NBN via FOI can be found here: https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-infor....
Kind regards
Melissa Nickols
FOI Coordinator/Assistant Director / Planning and Reporting / Governance
Department of Communications and the Arts
P +61 2 6271 1219
[email address]
2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601
communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear FOI,
I'm requesting if the Department of Communications is in possession, not who owns the document. I'm aware of NBN FOI processes.
Please perform a due diligence search and confirm if this document has ever been sent or communicated to your department.
Yours sincerely,
Timothy Nothdurft
Hi Timothy
Unfortunately the purpose of this site and this contact is not for you to ask questions about what is in the possession of the department. But if you would like to make an FOI request to the department for a document, you can do so through this channel and we will process it under the Act.
But I was telling you as a courtesy, a request for this document is more than likely to be transferred (under s 16 of the FOI Act). So even if it is in our possession we are not going to be processing the request if you do make it.
You are able to make a general query to our website (https://www.communications.gov.au/who-we...) or our media team if you have a general or media query that is not an FOI request.
Kind regards
Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[email address]
2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601
communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear FOI,
What site? I've made a very clear request "is the Department is in possession of a document" that is very specific under the FOI legislation.
If you would like to try and distract, discourage, or avoid I would like it on the public record.
Please carry out the search.
Yours sincerely,
Timothy Nothdurft
Hi Timothy
The Right to Know site is for requesting documents under the FOI Act. You are asking if the department is in possession of a document. That is not an FOI request - you are just asking a question.
Are you trying to make an FOI request to the department for this document? If not, I will not be able to reply further.
Regards
Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[email address]
2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601
communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear FOI,
I would like to request any documentation (emails, notes, standards, procedures, correspondence) that references the document in question. Either the document itself or references to the document.
Yours sincerely,
Timothy Nothdurft
Dear Mr Nothdurft
I acknowledge your FOI request to the Department.
The documents requested are more closely connected with the functions of NBN Co. As such NBN Co has accepted transfer of the request from the Department under section 16 of the FOI Act, and NBN Co will be in touch with you about your request shortly.
Regards
Melissa
FOI team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[email address]
2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601
communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear FOI,
I've obviously rescoped my request for a search of documents or records pertaining to high-level standard
NBN-NTO-EDS-359
Are you claiming the department is unwilling to perform its due diligence search in regards to FOI request?
Also note that ACMA has set precedence are have put on the record that they were able to perform a search for this document as a best effort. Which makes your department look hostile to FOI requests from the public with an external review recommended in my opinion.
Yours sincerely,
Timothy Nothdurft
Timothy Nothdurft left an annotation ()
I do not want this request transferred to NBN - this is an FOI request for the Department of Communications and clearly scoped this way.
Any redirection is evidence that the Department is unwilling to perform basic administrative search of their systems under FOI.
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
I know you don't want it to be transferred and you've made that point really clear on this request. I've simply updated the request to indicate that it's now with NBNCo and not with the Department of Communications.
I don't work for the Government but I've been around FOI for a long time so I hope this layperson explanation helps.
If the document was created by NBNCo (which I think it might have) and relates to it's "Commercial Activities" then the Department is compelled under Section 16(3) of the Freedom of Information Act to transfer the request to NBNCo.
I'm mindful that you might not agree with my point of view, and at the end of the day I'm just a volunteer for the charity that runs this service - I'm not a lawyer.
If you feel strongly about it, you would be best to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner. You can find out how to do that here: https://oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-informati...
Mr Nothdurft – Please find attached a letter concerning an FOI request,
originally sent to the Department of Communications and the Arts and
concerning “NBN-NTO-EDS-359 Network Design Rules MTM Distribution Fibre
Network”.
David J Mesman
General Counsel │FOI, Privacy & Knowledge Management
Corporate Advisory and Systems Engineering & Operations Legal Team
E [1][email address]
Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060
[2]cid:image001.png@01D4186E.FCC70E80
nbn acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all
the lands upon which we work.
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Dear David Mesman,
This FOI should never have been redirected to NBN as the scope was a search of the Department of Communications and Arts for REFERENCES and/or copies to the standard and NOT the document itself. It is clear that NBNco is the document owner and have previously denied access to this document on both commercial and security (which may disputed under the original FOI as part of a review)
I apologise that you had to waste time processing this.
Yours sincerely,
Timothy Nothdurft
Ben Fairless left an annotation ()
The Department has reached out to the volunteers at Right to Know to advise that this request has been transferred to the NBN Co.
I've updated this request to reflect that it's now with the NBN Co.
If you're concerned that the Department hasn't processed the request correctly, you can make a complaint to the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner).