Dear Commonwealth Ombudsman,

The following is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act.

I am conducting research, across a range of Government agencies, into the Government's enterprise bargaining framework for the Commonwealth Public Service. Specifically, in the interests of equity and transparency, whether the Government's policy to reduce the living standards of rank and file public servants (that is, public servants who are not considered senior executive service staff ('SES')) also extends to SES public servants.

I refer the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) to my FOI request made of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner here (the 'OAIC request'): https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/p...

By this application I make the same request of the Ombudsman albeit such that every reference to 'OAIC' in the OAIC request should be read as a reference to the 'Ombudsman'. I rely on all my submissions contained in the OAIC request, in support of this request made of the Department under s.15 of the FOI Act.

Further, I am amenable to the Ombudsman providing copies of relevant group certificates or otherwise a payroll report or other summary document with the names of the relevant officers redacted but only on the condition that each relevant officer's name be replaced by a single unique identifier such that each relevant SES officer's precise salary can be tracked over the three relevant financial years (eg. SES officer #1, SES officer #2, SES officer #3 etc).

Thanks.

Dear Commonwealth Ombudsman,

Is there a reason why the Commonwealth Ombudsman has been unable to acknowledge receipt of my request in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 15(5)(a) of the FOI Act?

Dear Information Access,

Thank you for your work on this matter.