Private use of social media advice provided to employees

James Smith made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Public Service Commission as part of a batch sent to 204 authorities

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

Australian Public Service Commission did not have the information requested.

Dear Australian Public Service Commission,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

I request documents related to the ten most recent instances where an employee has sought information, advice, guidance, or opinion on their social media use in a private capacity.

I limit the scope of documents to:
- the original request from the employee
- the agency/department's response
- any follow-up questions and response
- only those sent to a relevant HR / conduct / social media (or similar) team (rather than managers across all areas of the organisation)
- where the original request was created in the last 2 years

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours faithfully,

James Smith

FOI, Australian Public Service Commission

Dear applicant,

I write to acknowledge your request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act), as below.

Your request was received on 8 August 2017 and pursuant to the FOI Act, the statutory timeframe for responding to your request is 30 days from the date of receipt. This timeframe may be extended in certain circumstances. We will advise you if such circumstances arise.

The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your request and the amount of any such charge as soon as practicable.

Please feel free to contact the FOI team at the Commission if you have any questions in relation to your request, quoting the reference number above.

Kind regards,

FOI Officer
Legal Services

Australian Public Service Commission
Level 6, Aviation House, 16 Furzer Street, PHILLIP ACT 2606

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FOI, Australian Public Service Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Applicant,

Please find attached correspondence related to your FOI request dated 8 August 2017.

Kind regards,

FOI Officer
Legal Services

Australian Public Service Commission
Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, Parkes ACT 2600 GPO Box 3176, Canberra ACT 2601

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Locutus Sum left an annotation ()

This request was refused under s 24A(1) of the Commonwealth FOI Act. The section says that requests can be refused when the requested documents cannot be found or do not exist.

... but this is extraordinary. The Australian Public Service Commission was in the news exactly because of the advice it gave to employess and because of the way that the behaviour or the APS Commissioner, John Lloyd conflicted with the advice of his agency.