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Position Tree Report

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Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,

I request copy of the current OAIC position tree report (that lists all OAIC positions, their classifications, current occupant, etc).

By way of example I previously requested copy of DVA's position tree in January of this year https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...

This report can be produced entirely by the OAIC's computers.

Ciao

Julie

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

5 Attachments

Our reference: FOIREQ22/00190

Dear Julie

Freedom of Information request

I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 16 July 2022.

Scope of your request

In your email you seek access to the following:

“I request copy of the current OAIC position tree report (that lists all
OAIC positions, their classifications, current occupant, etc).

 

By way of example I previously requested copy of DVA's position tree in
January of this year https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...

 

This report can be produced entirely by the OAIC's computers.”

In order to process your request as efficiently as possible, I will
exclude duplicates and early parts of email streams that are captured in
later email streams from the scope of this request, unless you advise me
otherwise.

We will not identify you as the FOI applicant during and consultation
process. However, documents that are within the scope of your request that
we may need to consult third parties about may contain your personal
information.

Timeframes for dealing with your request

Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.

As we received your request on 16 July 2022, we must process your request
by 15 August 2022.

Disclosure Log

Documents released under the FOI Act may be published online on our
disclosure log, unless they contain personal or business information that
would be unreasonable to publish.

If you would like to discuss this matter, please contact me on my contact
details set out below.

Regards

 

[1][IMG] Toby Shanks | Paralegal

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au

1300 363 992 |
[3][email address]
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter | [7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
icon Information Matters

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
5. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
6. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

6 Attachments

Dear Julie

I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 16 July 2022.

In that request you stated:

“I request copy of the current OAIC position tree report (that lists all
OAIC positions, their classifications, current occupant, etc).

By way of example I previously requested copy of DVA's position tree in
January of this year https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...

This report can be produced entirely by the OAIC's computers.”

The link you have provided to the Right to Know website has unfortunately
been broken and does not work (see original FOI request attached).

Could you please kindly resend us the link?

Thank you.

Kind regards

[1][IMG] Toby Shanks | Paralegal

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au

1300 363 992 |
[3][email address]
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter | [7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
icon Information Matters

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
5. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
6. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...

Dear OAIC - Legal,

FOIREQ19/00217 is an example that will be easier for you to access as the page seems to have gone.

The FOIREQ19/00217 decision and released document is available here https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/o...

I understand that the OAIC can produce a table using preset reporting functions that generate a report that lists:
- Position Number
- Position/Job Title
- Classification (APS Level or Contractor)
- Occupant (Vacant if position not filled)
- Reports to Position
- Group / Branch / Section / etc

Ciao

Julie

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

8 Attachments

OAIC ref: FOIREQ22/00190

 

Dear Julie

 

I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 16 July 2022.

 

Please find attached:

 1. Decision
 2. Schedule of documents, and
 3. Documents released.

 

 

Kind regards

Margaret

 

 

[1]O A I C logo   Margaret Sui |  Senior Lawyer

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [2]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9942 4145  |
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's handling of FOIREQ22/00190 'Position Tree Report'.

Despite the ic guidelines stating that the scope of an foi must be interpreted reasonably the delegate applied a particularly restrictive interpretation that ignored that the fields given were not restrictive or exhaustive, but were used only as illustrative examples as highlighted by the opened ended use of etc. The scope of the request was for the 'current OAIC position tree report' and therefore fields redacted under s 22 from these position tree reports had no such consent to be treated as out of scope as they formed part of these position tree documents.

The s 47E(c) exemptions claimed are also invalid on the basis that they exceed reasonable practice established even when agencies claim a workplace health and safety basis, in that redaction of all detail is excessive to the usual practice in such claims (last names are usually redacted by first names are not).

An agency cannot merely assert that an effect would occur following disclosure. The particulars of the predicted effect and the reasons behind the identification of those particulars must be articulated during the decision making process. Those particulars must also indicate whether the effect could reasonably be expected to occur. In that, the delegate's decision was deficient.

Section 47E(c) has been examined before by the Information Commissioner, who stated:

---
I have had regard to the Department’s submissions, which are framed in general terms that do not explain how the predicted adverse effect could reasonably be expected to occur in this case. In particular, the Department has not explained how disclosure of the officer’s family names and user identification details to the applicant could result in a reasonable expectation of staff being targeted, insulted or harassed in this particular case

To refuse access to a document under s 47E(c) of the FOI Act on this basis, the harassment or threats the Department described must be reasonably expected to occur as a result of the disclosure of the documents in the particular circumstances of the case. Additionally, as the FOI Guidelines explain, an agency cannot rely on a class claim contention when withholding access to a document under a conditional exemption.

Consistent with Warren; Chief Executive Officer, Services Australia and (Freedom of information) [2020] AATA 4557 and ‘NN’, while I agree that the Department needs to be appropriately attentive to its workplace health and safety obligations to staff, I am not satisfied that the release of the family names of the officers and the user identification details in this case could reasonably be expected to have a substantial adverse effect on the management of personnel.
---

As stated by the delegate, "The OAIC generally releases it staff member’s names" not only in foi decisions but in a range of material both on the OAIC website as well as other third party websites (that not only disclose that the OAIC employee works for the OAIC but also their job title and contact numbers).

Such a s 47E(c) claim amounts to a class claim based not on the disclosure itself (given you cannot disclose freely in public elsewhere and then selectively refuse on a s 47E(c) basis), but due to dislike for the request.

Despite the claim that "There have been instances where OAIC staff members have received threats of harm from members of the public", a generalised claim with no evidence offered in support, Comcare data shows there have been no claims made by any OAIC employee for assault (mental or physical) by anyone other than OAIC employees since the OAIC was first established.

Given Commonwealth employees are proactive in claiming compensation, the absence of any such claims is evidence that no substantive adverse effect or weight was put on such events, even if there was any evidence (not shown) they had occurred.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...

Ciao

Julie

Dear OAIC - Legal,

For the purposes of the FOI Act, I request copy of the reporting of the instances referred to in the statement given by the OAIC "There have been instances where OAIC staff members have received threats of harm from members of the public".

Ciao

Julie

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

5 Attachments

Our reference: FOIREQ22/00242

Dear Julie

Freedom of Information request

I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 23 August 2022.

Scope of your request

In your email you seek access to the following:

“For the purposes of the FOI Act, I request copy of the reporting of the
instances referred to in the statement given by the OAIC "There have been
instances where OAIC staff members have received threats of harm from
members of the public".”

In order to process your request as efficiently as possible, I will
exclude duplicates and early parts of email streams that are captured in
later email streams from the scope of this request, unless you advise me
otherwise.

We will not identify you as the FOI applicant during and consultation
process. However, documents that are within the scope of your request that
we may need to consult third parties about may contain your personal
information.

Timeframes for dealing with your request

Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.

As we received your request on 23 August 2022, we must process your
request by 22 September 2022.

Disclosure Log

Documents released under the FOI Act may be published online on our
disclosure log, unless they contain personal or business information that
would be unreasonable to publish.

If you would like to discuss this matter, please contact me on my contact
details set out below.

Regards

 

[1][IMG] Toby Shanks | Paralegal

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au

1300 363 992 |
[3][email address]
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter | [7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
icon Information Matters

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
5. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
6. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

5 Attachments

OAIC reference: FOIREQ22/00241

 

Dear Julie,

 

I refer to your email of 23 August 2022.

 

We acknowledge receipt of your application for internal review of the
OAIC’s FOI decision FOIREQ22/00190 dated 15 August 2022.

 

Section 54C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) requires this
office to make a fresh decision within 30 days after the day we received
your application.

 

Because we received your application on 23 August 2022, we must make a
fresh decision by 22 September 2022.

 

Your application will be allocated to a review officer with no previous
involvement with the earlier decision.

 

If you have any questions, please contact me at the details provided
below.

 

Kind regards

 

[1][IMG] Toby Shanks | Paralegal

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
[2]oaic.gov.au

1300 363 992 |
[3][email address]
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter | [7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
icon Information Matters

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
5. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
6. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

7 Attachments

OFFICIAL: Sensitive

OAIC ref: FOIREQ22/00242

 

Dear Julie,

 

I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on  23 August 2022 (attached).

 

Please find attached decision of today’s date.

 

Kind regards,

 

[1]O A I C logo   Alessia Mercuri | Lawyer

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [2]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9942 4236| 
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OFFICIAL: Sensitive

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/updates/sign-up/

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

3 Attachments

Dear Julie,

Please find attached decision in relation to your request for internal review of FOIREQ22/00190.

Regards,

Emily

Emily Elliott  |  Senior Lawyer
Legal Services
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |  oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9852|  [email address]

|

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show quoted sections

Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's access refusal decision in FOIREQ22/00242.

Where a claim is made by an foi agency that release of a document in its original form is exempt in full, the FOI Act creates an obligation on the foi agency to consider if access in another form would allow some release.

This was not done. Some individual details may have some valid concerns, but this is untrue for every part of such documents.

Ciao

Julie

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

5 Attachments

OAIC reference: FOIREQ22/00321

Dear Julie

I refer to your email of 4 October 2022.

We acknowledge receipt of your application for internal review of the
OAIC’s FOI decision FOIREQ22/00242 dated 23 September 2022.

Section 54C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) requires this
office to make a fresh decision within 30 days after the day we received
your application.

Because we received your application on 4 October 2022, we must make a
fresh decision by 3 November 2022.

Your application will be allocated to a review officer with no previous
involvement with the earlier decision.

If you have any questions, please contact me at the details provided
below.

Kind regards

Molly

 

[1]O A I C logo   Molly Cooke | Lawyer

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [2]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9942 4296  |
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

 

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

3 Attachments

FOIREQ22/00321

 

Dear Julie,

 

Please find attached our decision in the above internal review matter.

 

Kind regards,

 

Llewellyn

 

[1]O A I C logo   Llewellyn Horgan | Graduate

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |  oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9942 4234 |  [2][email address]

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

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

Dear OAIC - Legal,

I request copy of the file properties of each of the 14 documents listed in the schedule of documents given in FOIREQ22/00321. File properties are able to be produced using computers ordinarily available to the OAIC by selecting properties or file information of the document in question in the file manager application.

Yours sincerely,

Julie

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

6 Attachments

Our Reference: FOIREQ22/00372

 

Dear Julie,

Freedom of Information request

I refer to your request for access to documents made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) and received by the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 5 November 2022.

Scope of your request

In your email you seek access to the following:

I request copy of the file properties of each of the 14 documents listed
in the schedule of documents given in FOIREQ22/00321. File properties are
able to be produced using computers ordinarily available to the OAIC by
selecting properties or file information of the document in question in
the file manager application.

Can you please kindly clarify the exact properties which you are seeking.
Namely, could you please confirm whether you are seeking:

 1. Properties concerning the location of the files, or
 2. Properties concerning the size of the files, or
 3. Properties concerning the created, modified or access date of the
files, or
 4. All of the above.

We have interpreted your scope to mean (4) above, that is, “Properties
concerning the location of the files, Properties concerning the size of
the files and Properties concerning the created, modified or access date
of the files’. Can you please kindly confirm by noon Thursday 10 November
2022 that this is correct?

If we do not hear from you by this time, we will assume that you agree
with our interpretation of the scope and will process the request
according to our understanding of the scope.

In order to process your request as efficiently as possible, I will
exclude duplicates and early parts of email streams that are captured in
later email streams from the scope of this request, unless you advise me
otherwise.

We will not identify you as the FOI applicant during and consultation
process. However, documents that are within the scope of your request that
we may need to consult third parties about may contain your personal
information.

Timeframes for dealing with your request

Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.

As we received your request on 5 November 2022, we must process your
request by 5 December 2022.

Disclosure Log

Documents released under the FOI Act may be published online on our
disclosure log, unless they contain personal or business information that
would be unreasonable to publish.

If you would like to discuss this matter, please contact the OAIC as per
SPOC procedure. 

Kind Regards,

[1]O A I C logo   Alessia Mercuri | Lawyer

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [2]oaic.gov.au

+61 2 9942 4236| 
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/updates/sign-up/

OAIC - Legal, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

8 Attachments

Our reference: FOIREQ22/00372

 

Dear Julie,

 

Please find attached a decision of today’s date and document schedule, in
relation to the above FOI Request.

 

Kind Regards,

 

[1]O A I C logo   Alessia Mercuri | Lawyer

Legal Services

Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001  |
 [2]oaic.gov.au

(02) 9246 0488 | 
[3][email address]
[7]Subscribe [8]Subscribe to
[4]Facebook | [5]LinkedIn | [6]Twitter |   icon Information
Matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 488 064 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
2. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
8. https://www.oaic.gov.au/updates/sign-up/

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Julie please sign in and let everyone know.