Letters from Legal to Former Council Members
Dear Australian National University,
In response FOI 202500185, ANU released a letter from Philip Harrison to Millan Pintos-Lopez on the subject “Reminder of obligations and confidentiality”. In the letter Philip Harrison suggested that he had contemporaneously written similar letters “to all recent members of Council.” I would like to request copies of all of those letters/emails.
To help you with your search, here is a list of recent members of council:
Naomi Flutter
Sarah Pearson
Craig Moritz
Edan Habel
Phoenix O'Neill
Doug McTaggart
Brian Schmidt
William Moisis
Ben Yates
Joan Leach
Philip Harrison does not specify the date upon which he sent letters to other recent members of council, but the letter to Millan Pintos-Lopez was dated 30 January 2025, and he implies those letters were sent at a similar time.
Yours faithfully,
Matt Rivers
Good afternoon
On 20 October August 2025, the Australian National University (the University) received your request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
The University has taken your request to be as follows:
" In response FOI 202500185, ANU released a letter from Philip Harrison to Millan Pintos-Lopez on the subject “Reminder of obligations and confidentiality”. In the letter Philip Harrison suggested that he had contemporaneously written similar letters “to all recent members of Council.”
I would like to request copies of all of those letters/emails.
To help you with your search, here is a list of recent members of council:
Naomi Flutter
Sarah Pearson
Craig Moritz
Edan Habel
Phoenix O'Neill
Doug McTaggart
Brian Schmidt
William Moisis
Ben Yates
Joan Leach
Philip Harrison does not specify the date upon which he sent letters to other recent members of council, but the letter to Millan Pintos-Lopez was dated 30 January 2025, and he implies those letters were sent at a similar time.
Your request has been assigned the case number 202500271.
Processing Timeframe
The statutory time frame for processing your request is 30 calendar days from day after the date your request was received by the University. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 20 November 2025.
This period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties, impose a charge or for other reasons. We will advise you in writing if this happens.
We will contact you using the email address you provided. Please advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact. If you have any questions regarding your request, please feel free to contact the FOI Team via the functional email [ANU request email].
The FOI Team’s workload is currently at very high levels due the unprecedented volume of FOI requests.
We are using our best endeavours to process all requests expeditiously however there may be some slippage due to the current workload. We will keep in touch with you and advise if there are any significant delays, and, will, if necessary, seek extensions as permitted by the Act.
Yours sincerely
FOI Team
University Governance Office
The Australian National University
Email: [ANU request email]
Web: https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906
Dear Freedom of Information,
I was told to expect a response from you by yesterday. Can you please provide an update on the status of this request?
Yours sincerely,
Matt Rivers
Dear Australian National University,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Australian National University's handling of my FOI request 'Letters from Legal to Former Council Members'.
I submitted this request on 20 October. ANU responded on 5 November saying “should therefore expect a decision from us by 20 November 2025”. I have not heard anything from ANU since then.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
Matt Rivers
Dear Matt Rivers
We refer to the below email.
We apologise for the delay.
We have made an original decision which we have attempted to forward to this email address, but the email appears to have bounced.
We hope by replying directly to this email it will get through, in which case we will for the original decision again.
Once you have the original decision we invite you to consider whether you wish to proceed with the Internal Review.
Regards,
ANU FOI Team
Dear Matt Rogers,
Please see below
Regards
ANU FOI Team
From: Freedom of Information
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2026 4:42 PM
To: ''[FOI #13892 email]'
<'[FOI #13892 email]>
Subject: FOI 202500271
Dear Matt Rivers,
We enclose correspondence in relation to your FOI request.
Regards
ANU Freedom Of Information Team
E: [1][ANU request email]
Web: [2]https://www.anu.edu.au/freedom-of-inform...
TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider
Code: 00120C | ABN: 52 234 063 906
References
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