Preparation of Nauru RPC to accommodate children 2012-2018
Dear Department of Home Affairs,
I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act any and all site assessments and/or records of site preparation works pertaining to the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from 2012-2018.
Thank you for your assistance with this request.
Yours faithfully,
Eleanor Davey
** This is an automated response. Please do not reply to this email **
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
In reply please quote:
FOI Request: FA 21/03/01159
File Number: OBJ2021/9809
Dear Ms Davey
Acknowledgement of Freedom of Information Access request
I refer to your correspondence received on 23 March 2021 seeking access to documents held by the Department of Home Affairs (the Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act).
Scope of request
You have requested access to the following:
I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act any and all site assessments and/or records of site preparation works pertaining to the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from 2012-2018..
Your request was received by the Department on 23 March 2021 and has been allocated FOI request number FA 21/03/01159 . Please include your FOI request number in all correspondence with the Freedom of Information Section.
Timeframe for receiving your decision
The statutory timeframe for processing a request is 30 days from the date upon which your application was received by the Department.
Your review rights in relation to your request are available on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner here.
Exclusion of staff details
The Department’s policy is to exclude the personal details of staff not in the Senior Executive Service (SES), as well as the direct contact details of SES staff, contained in documents that fall within scope of an FOI request. If you require personal details of non-SES officers, or direct contact details of SES staff, please inform us so the decision maker may consider your request. Otherwise we will take it that you agree to that information being excluded from the scope of your request.
Duplicate documents
If the FOI decision-maker deems a document to be a duplicate, they will not assess those pages as part of your FOI request. This means that if a there is a decision to release the document to you, you will receive only one copy, even if multiple copies of that document exists.
Publication of document
Where documents are released to you in response to your request, the Department may be required to publish these documents on its website within 10 working days in accordance with section 11C of the FOI Act. Publication will not be required where the documents contain personal or business affairs information.
Contacting the FOI Section
Should you wish to discuss your request you may contact the FOI Section at [Department of Home Affairs request email].
Kind regards,
FOI Officer
Position Number: 60007069MS
Freedom of Information
Department of Home Affairs
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Our references: FA 21/03/01159; OBJ2021/9809
Dear Ms Davey
This email refers to your FOI request seeking access to:
I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act any and all
site assessments and/or records of site preparation works pertaining to
the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any
age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from
2012-2018.
The purpose of this email is to advise you, as required under s.24AB of
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) that I consider a practical
refusal reason exists under s.24AA of the FOI Act in relation to your
request. I have set out my reasons and the actions required by you in the
attached notice.
Consultation period
The FOI Act requires that you respond to this notice before the end of the
consultation period, which is close of business Tuesday, 4 May 2021.
You may consult with the FOI section by replying to this email:
[1][Department of Home Affairs request email]
Kind Regards
Will
Position no. 60043894
FOI Officer | Freedom of Information Section
FOI and Records Management Branch
Data Division | Corporate and Enabling Group
Department of Home Affairs
OFFICIAL
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References
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Dear FOI,
Thank you for your correspondence, unfortunately there was a problem with the system and the email was somehow held up.
I would like to limit my request to site assessments pertaining to the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from 2012-2018.
I hope that this limitation in the type of documentation required will make the request practicable. Thank you for the time that has been taken to understand the scope and practical implications of the previous, more inclusive request.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Davey
OFFICIAL
Dear Ms Davey,
Thanks for your email.
After consultation with the relevant business area they have confirmed that your revision of the scope won't narrow down the documents.
To help us try to find the documents you are after could you specify what you mean by 'site assessments'? For example, are you looking for assessments of the infrastructure, or security or something else more specific? Some more clarification would be helpful. Also, as the current date range is quite broad (2012-2018) if you are able to narrow this down further to a more specific date range that would also be very helpful.
If you have any questions regarding this please let us know via return email.
Kind regards,
Will
Position No. 60046990
Authorised FOI Officer
Freedom of Information
E: [email address]
OFFICIAL
Dear Will and colleagues,
Thank you for following up. I'm sorry this is proving so difficult to clarify and appreciate your patience.
Site assessments would refer specifically to the Nauru RPC (not, for example, to security issues in Nauru more generally); that said, they might encompass various issues such as physical terrain, accommodation, recreational or educational facilities. It is my understanding that these are usually assessed holistically in a single package when considering a site but if they were divided into separate documents I would like to request them all rather than only one element of the assessment. However, I would not need site assessments that were specifically designed for consideration of adult or staff needs.
To make the chronology more manageable, the request could be limited to 2012 and 2013 - that is, to the phases when decisions were being made about reopening the centres and their appropriateness for children and families.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Davey
Dear Will and colleagues,
Just resending to ensure that my previous message (dated 5 May 2021) made it to you. I have copied it below again just in case.
Kind regards,
Eleanor
-----
Thank you for following up. I'm sorry this is proving so difficult to clarify and appreciate your patience.
Site assessments would refer specifically to the Nauru RPC (not, for example, to security issues in Nauru more generally); that said, they might encompass various issues such as physical terrain, accommodation, recreational or educational facilities. It is my understanding that these are usually assessed holistically in a single package when considering a site but if they were divided into separate documents I would like to request them all rather than only one element of the assessment. However, I would not need site assessments that were specifically designed for consideration of adult or staff needs.
To make the chronology more manageable, the request could be limited to 2012 and 2013 - that is, to the phases when decisions were being made about reopening the centres and their appropriateness for children and families.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Davey
OFFICIAL
Dear Eleanor,
Thank you for your email.
Yes we have received your revised scope. We are in the process of considering and seeing if we can find the documents.
Kind regards,
Will
Position No. 60046990
Authorised FOI Officer
Freedom of Information
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]
OFFICIAL
Dear Will, dear FOI colleagues,
I was wondering if it would be possible to have an update on this request. I am conscious of the time frame for the normal response to the request and hope it can be resolved soon. Thanks again for your work on assessing it so far.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor Davey
OFFICIAL
Good morning Eleanor,
Thank you for your email.
Yes we apologise for the delay in getting back to you for this case. We had some documents that we thought were in scope but they turned out to be the wrong ones. So we are still searching for any documents that may be in scope. I have contacted another area of the Department and am waiting to see what they can find.
Thanks for your patience on this.
Yours sincerely
Will
Position No. 60043894
Authorised FOI Officer
Freedom of Information
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon Ms Davey,
This email is just to confirm that we have accepted your revised scope and are proceeding to process your request.
Your revised scope has been interpreted as the following:
'I would like to limit my request to site assessments pertaining to the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from 2012-2018. I would not need site assessments that were specifically designed for consideration of adult or staff needs'
We will provide you with a decision on this in due course
If you would like to discuss any of the above please contact the FOI section at [Department of Home Affairs request email]
Yours sincerely
Will
Position No. 60043894
Authorised FOI Officer
Freedom of Information
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon Ms Davey,
Apologies for this but I just noticed I wrote the date range incorrectly in the below revised scope, it should've said 2012-2013.
So the correct revised scope is:
'I would like to limit my request to site assessments pertaining to the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from 2012-2013. I would not need site assessments that were specifically designed for consideration of adult or staff needs'
Yours sincerely
Will
Position No. 60043894
Authorised FOI Officer
Freedom of Information
E: [Department of Home Affairs request email]
OFFICIAL
OFFICIAL
Dear Ms Davey
FOI request FA 21/03/01159
I refer to your FOI request received on 23 March 2021, seeking access to
the following:
I would like to request under the Freedom of Information Act any and all
site assessments and/or records of site preparation works pertaining to
the possibility of transferring or otherwise accommodating children of any
age (including infants) in the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru from
2012-2018.
The Department has made a decision on this request. Please find attached
the decision record.
This request has now been closed.
Yours sincerely
Guy
Position no. 60103474
FOI Section
FOI and Records Management Branch
Data Division
Strategy & Law Enforcement Group
Email: [1][Department of Home Affairs request email]
Department of Home Affairs - [2]www.homeaffairs.gov.au
OFFICIAL
Important Notice: The content of this email is intended only for use by
the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received
this email by mistake, please advise the sender and delete the message and
attachments immediately. This email, including attachments, may contain
confidential, sensitive, legally privileged and/or copyright information.
Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information
by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
The Department of Home Affairs and ABF respect your privacy and have
obligations under the Privacy Act 1988.
Unsolicited commercial emails MUST NOT be sent to the originator of this
email.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Department of Home Affairs request email]
2. http://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/