Dear Whittaker,

I confirm receipt of both your original FOI request and the below revision, seeking access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act), as follows:

I’d like to make an FOI request for a copy of the briefing notes/Q and As/talking points document prepared for APSC officials for their attendance before the additional/spill over senate estimates session yesterday, -7- December 2017: as set out here: https://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/Estimates...

The statutory timeframe for responding to your request is 30 days from the date of receipt. This timeframe may be extended in certain circumstances and 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 possible.

Should you have any questions please contact the FOI team by reply email.

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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For Official Use Only

Dear Applicant,

Please find attached correspondence relating to your request.

Regards,

FOI Officer

Legal Services

Australian Public Service Commission

Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, Parkes ACT 2600 GPO Box 3176,
Canberra ACT 2601

Important: This email remains the property of the Commonwealth and is
subject to the jurisdiction of section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914. It may
contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you think it
was sent to you by mistake, please delete all copies and advise the
sender.

For Official Use Only

FOI Reference C18/2040

Acknowledgement of FOI request

The Australian Public Service Commission (the Commission) acknowledges
receipt of your request dated 22 October 2018, under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act), seeking access to the following
documents:

‘…a copy of the briefing notes/Q and As/talking points document prepared
for APSC officials for their attendance before the senate estimates
session today, 22 October 2018.’

Timeframe

The statutory timeframe for responding to your request under the FOI Act
is 30 days from the date of receipt. This timeframe may be extended in
certain circumstances, and we will advise you if such circumstances arise.
An extension to the timeframe may occur if there is a need to conduct
formal consultation with affected third parties. Such consultation may
extend the processing time by an additional 30 days, in accordance with
sections 27 and 27A [Consultation – business documents and personal
privacy] of the FOI Act.

Charges

Section 29 of the FOI Act provides that agencies may apply a processing
charge for access to documents which do not concern your own personal
information.  I will write to you and inform you if it is decided that a
processing charge will apply.

Irrelevant material

Section 22 of the FOI Act, provides that agencies may redact certain
material from documents, if it is deemed that the material is irrelevant
to the scope of a request.  The Commission’s policy is to redact the
personal information and contact details of Commission or APSC officers,
who are employed below Senior Executive Officers (SES) level, including
mobile telephone numbers and signatures. 

Should you have any questions relating to your request, please do not
hesitate to contact our office via email to [1][email address]

Kind regards,

FOI Coordinator

Legal Services

Australian Public Service Commission

Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, Parkes ACT 2600

GPO Box 3176, Canberra ACT 2601

Email: [email address]

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For Official Use Only
Dear Sir/Madam

Please find attached correspondence in relation to your request of 22 October 2018.

Regards

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Good morning I Whittaker

Thank you for your email below of 2 December 2018 concerning your FOI
request.

I note that you have advised that you cannot afford the payment of the
charge.  Are you seeking a formal review of the charge on the basis of
financial hardship grounds, or did you wish to withdraw your request?

If you are claiming that financial hardship should be taken into account
by the decision maker, and are seeking a review of the charge decision on
the grounds of financial hardship, you would need to provide evidence to
support this. 

Information Commissioner Guidelines

Paragraph 4.77 of the Guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner, under section 93A of the Freedom of Information
Act 1982, provides that

4.77 An applicant relying on this ground (financial hardship) could
ordinarily be expected to provide some evidence of financial hardship.^22
For example, the applicant may rely upon (and provide evidence of) receipt
of a pension or income support payment; or provide evidence of income,
debts or assets. However, an agency should be cautious about conducting an
intrusive inquiry into an applicant’s personal financial circumstances.
Agencies need to have regard to the policy of the Privacy Act, which is to
minimise the collection of personal information to what is required for
the particular function or activity. For example, in this case, to make a
decision as to whether to waive or reduce a charge.

22 For example, see ‘CK’ and Department of Human Services [2014] AICmr 83
[13]-[14]; ‘AY’ and Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2014] AICmr 7
[18]–[24]; and ‘DL’ and Department of Immigration and Border Protection
[2014] AICmr 119 [21]-[25].  

Further information about the Charges process

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner provides further
guidance material by way of FOI Fact Sheets.  Further information about
the charges process is available at
[1]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor...

Ways to reduce the charge and the amount of documents

Another way in which the charge could be reduced, is for you to narrow the
scope of the request so that less documents are captured by the request.
This could be done by narrowing the subject matter of your request, such
as briefs about a specific subject matter or a shorter timeframe.  Would
you like to advise if there is a specific topic which you are interested
in?  This could assist in reducing the scope of the request, and thereby
reducing the number of documents and the charge. 

Timeframes

The statutory time frame for you to receive your decision and assess your
charge review, is currently suspended during this period of consultation,
to allow you time to assess how you would like to proceed with your
request, by either

·       narrowing the scope of the request

·       seeking to reduce or waive the charge on grounds of either
financial hardship, or public interest grounds.  (If seeking a review on
financial hardship or public interest grounds, evidence of the grounds for
review or your financial hardship is required, as detailed above. 

We look forward to receiving your response by COB Tuesday 11 December
2018.

Kind regards

Karen | FOI Coordinator

Australian Public Service Commission

Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building

Parkes Place West, Parkes ACT 2600

P: 02 6202 3500 l E: [2][email address]

Important: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipients only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient you are
notified that any review, re-transmission,

disclosure, dissemination or other use of, or taking any action in
reliance upon this information is prohibited. If you have received this
e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all
electronic and hard copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

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