Dear Services Australia,

On the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) Agency Plan page on your website it states:

"b) the processes and timetable for identifying information required to be published under section 8(2) of the FOI Act and for publishing additional information under section 8(4) of the FOI Act
Each branch of the agency is responsible for the day to day tasks associated with complying with the IPS. For example, National Managers are responsible for ensuring that operational information is kept up to date on our operational information page. Consideration about whether operational information should be published is an integral part of this process.

To support this process, we have a guide for staff which:

describes processes to be followed internally to ensure published information is accurate, up to date and complete
helps staff identify what needs to be published under the IPS
describes processes for publishing information."

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/inf...

I request, under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, copies of the following document(s):
The aforementioned guide for staff that National Managers would use that:
"describes processes to be followed internally to ensure published information is accurate, up to date and complete
helps staff identify what needs to be published under the IPS
describes processes for publishing information."
The most up to date version is requested - if a new revision is in progress, please just use whatever is the current "production" version (though being notified there is a new revision coming would be nice).
if it has closely related supporting documents, please include those as well.

In the interests of speediness, I am willing to consider Administrative Access to said documents should the document be provided within 30 days of the sending of this email. After this time - the FOI act applies as normal in all instances.

My preferred method of delivery of this information is for the page to simply be made available to the public on the Services Australia website somewhere (I suggest the IPS page I linked) and absolutely NOT a PDF sent over email.

Yours faithfully,

Posty

FREEDOMOFINFORMATION, Services Australia



Thank you for making a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Services
Australia. The FOI team is operating with reduced capacity due to Services
Australia's role in the delivery of the Australian Government Disaster
Relief Payments.

The following is intended for people who are making a FOI request only   

If your request is not essential at this time, please consider withdrawing
your request and applying again in the future. To withdraw your request,
please respond to this email confirming you agree to withdraw your
request.    

Timeframe For processing your request

As staff have been diverted to process urgent Australian Government
Disaster Relief Payments, we require additional time to process the
request. We are seeking your agreement to extend the processing time of
your request by 30 days. This means you can expect to receive a decision
from us no later than 60 days after Services Australia receives your FOI
request.

Could you please respond to this email stating "I Agree" to confirm that
you accept the extension of time.

Please note this period may be further extended if we need to consult
third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if this happens.

Charges

Services Australia will advise you if a charge is payable to process your
request and the amount of any such charge as soon as practicable. No
charge is payable for providing a person with their own personal
information.

Your Address

The FOI Act requires you provide us with an address which we can send
notices to. We will send all notices and correspondence to the address you
have used to email us. Please advise us as soon as possible if you wish
correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address changes.

Administrative release of documents   

The agency has administrative access arrangements in place for the release
of certain documents without the need for a formal FOI request. These
arrangements do not extend to information or material of third parties.

Exclusion of junior staff details

Services Australia is working towards ensuring all staff have a choice
about whether they provide their full name, personal logon identifiers and
direct contact details in response to public enquiries. Where such details
are included in the scope of a request, this may add to processing time
and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us
otherwise, we will assume these details are out of scope of your request
and they will be redacted under section 22 of the FOI Act.

We will endeavour to process your FOI request within statutory timeframes
however this may not be possible.

We will not respond to 'reminder' or follow up emails so that we can focus
on processing your request as expeditiously as possible. We thank you for
your understanding and patience during this difficult time for all
Australians.    

 

            

show quoted sections

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM, Services Australia

2 Attachments

Dear Posty

 

Please find attached an acknowledgement letter from Services Australia
dated 18 March 2022.

 

Extension of time

 

The FOI team is operating with reduced capacity due to Services
Australia’s role in the delivery of the Australian Government Disaster
Relief Payments. We are therefore seeking your agreement to extend the
processing time by an additional 15 days.

 

If you agree to this additional time we would appreciate if you could
reply to this email with ‘I agree’.

 

I would be grateful if you could respond to this email by no later than
Tuesday, 22 March 2022 indicating if you agree to the extension of time.

 

Kind regards

 

Claudija

Information Access Branch

Legal Services Division

[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D6B8DA.3399D830

Services Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land now
called Australia. We pay our respect to all Elders, past and present, of
all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.

 

Please note: This email and any attachments may contain information
subject to legal professional privilege or  information that is otherwise
sensitive or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this
email, you are prohibited from using or disseminating this communication.
If you have received this  communication in error please notify the sender
immediately and permanently delete this email.

 

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links

Dear Claudija,

I would like to remind you that by my lack of reply, as per the standard FOI legal principle I did not consent to any request for extension.

You tacitly acknowledge this by requesting that we reply granting the extension.

Having communicated with the department many times prior, regardless of circumstance you have requested time extensions prior to do the job for which you are employed for. I have sometimes granted it. However, I have noticed that this has now become your default position.

If you lack the people resources to complete your tasks in a timely manner, your request for clemency should not rest upon me, but your management to provide said resource.

If this task was in any way onerous i might have considered the request, but given you describe the document on your website, you should find it pretty easily.

Please forward this feedback to your FOI management.

Yours sincerely,

Posty

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM, Services Australia

3 Attachments

Dear Posty,

 

Please find attached correspondence from Services Australia dated 11 April
2022 in relation to your request for access under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Claudija

Information Access Branch

Legal Services Division

[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D6B8DA.3399D830

Services Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land now
called Australia. We pay our respect to all Elders, past and present, of
all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations.

 

Please note: This email and any attachments may contain information
subject to legal professional privilege or information that is otherwise
sensitive or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this
email, you are prohibited from using or disseminating this communication.
If you have received this communication in error please notify the sender
immediately and permanently delete this email.

show quoted sections

References

Visible links

Verity Pane left an annotation ()

FOI agencies just routinely ask or assume by default for agreements to extensions of time now, often on very vague and broad claims that realistically have no impact on FOI sections at all.

I agree the practice needs to be called out.