Serco Call Centre Trial Report

Evelyn Doyle made this Freedom of Information request to Services Australia

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

The request was refused by Services Australia.

Dear Department of Human Services,

I note in a Sydney Morning Herald newspaper article dated 30 October 2018, there is mention of a $51m trial to outsource Centrelink call centre services to Serco.

Since then, the department has proceeded with a large call centre outsourcing project to various companies based on the report outlining the findings of the trial, and from which the decision to outsource was made.

I would like to request a copy of the report under administrative access, as I assume the department has it ready to hand or could provide a link. I searched the Department of Human Services website but have not managed to locate the report.

If administrative access is not an available option, please accept this as a formal freedom of information request for the report under the FOI Act.

Thank you in advance for processing this request.

Yours faithfully,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Doyle

 

Please find attached correspondence in relation to your Freedom of
Information request.

 

Regards

 

 

Freedom of Information Team

Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division

Department of Human Services

[1][email address]

[2]cid:image001.png@01D4DF1F.F6F6D9E0

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FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Doyle

 

Please find attached correspondence in relation to your Freedom of
Information request.

 

Kind regards

 

Robert

Freedom of Information Practitioner

Freedom of Information Team

Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division

Department of Human Services

[1][email address]

[2]cid:image001.png@01D4E57A.3BAAB100

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Dear FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

Thank you for advising me of charges. I am having trouble opening the link to Easypay.

It may be easier and quicker to provide a phone number and I can pay using credit card over the phone.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Doyle

 

Unfortunately, there is no facility to take credit card payments via the
phone for FOI requests. The only options that are available are provided
within the notification dated 28 March 2019.

 

For your assistance, please find below the web address for the Easypay
link:

 

[1]https://www.ippayments.com.au/access/ind...

 

Kind regards

 

Robert

Freedom of Information Practitioner

Freedom of Information Team

Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division

Department of Human Services

[2][email address]

[3]cid:image001.png@01D4E8A4.F87402A0

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**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
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Dear Robert

Thank you for providing the link, I have now paid the FOI charges in full - $44.50 via the Easypay link.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

Evelyn Doyle left an annotation ()

The due date of 09 April 2019 has passed.

Dear FOI Legal Team

Please note the release date of 09 April has passed. Could you please advise the status of my request.

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

Stephanie Johnson left an annotation ()

Hi Evelyn,

Section 31 of the FOI Act states that when charges are calculated, the processing time is paused until those charges are paid.

This means that the time between when when you were issued the charges letter (28 March) and when you paid the charges does not count for determining the 30 day time period, so the department has a a few extra days to finalise the decision.

Good luck

Steph

Dear Stephanie

Thank you for following up. I understood from the letter one document had been identified so look forward to receiving the report.

Thanks again.

Yours sincerely,

Evelyn Doyle

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

Dear Ms Doyle,

Section 31 of the FOI Act provides that where a notice is sent to an applicant regarding the payment of a charge in respect of a request, the time limit for processing the request is suspended, this is provided within the department's correspondence sent 28 March 2019. As your payment was received on 1 April 2019, the due date is now 15 April 2019.

Kind regards

Robert
Freedom of Information Practitioner
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
[email address]

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IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. 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. Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail **********************************************************************

Evelyn Doyle left an annotation ()

Thank you Stephanie. I inadvertently thought sent my reply to you via Human Services. :)

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Doyle

 

Please find attached the decision letter relating to your request made
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

 

Kind regards

 

Robert

Freedom of Information Practitioner

Freedom of Information Team

Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division

Department of Human Services

[1][email address]

[2]cid:image001.png@01D4F36E.36F5AF50

show quoted sections

 

**********************************************************************
IMPORTANT: This e-mail is for the use of the intended recipient only and
may contain information that is confidential, commercially valuable and/or
subject to legal or parliamentary privilege. If you are not the intended
recipient you are notified that any review, re-transmission, disclosure,
dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon,
this information is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. If you
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and delete all electronic and hard copies of this transmission together
with any attachments. Please consider the environment before printing this
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Dear Robert

Thank you for passing on the department's response, please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Human Services's handling of my FOI request 'Serco Call Centre Trial Report'.

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

I note part of your response in this paragraph below:

"I have decided to refuse access to this document in its entirety, on the basis that it is
exempt under section 34(1)(a) of the FOI Act, as it has been submitted to Cabinet for its
consideration and it was brought into existence for the dominant purpose of submission for
consideration by Cabinet."

While I understand the exemptions for Cabinet documents and the department's claims that the origin of the report was to examine new policy (and advice and evidence provided in the report), it is within the department's power to declassify the document [the report] and make it available for release.

Given the report's findings outline the reasons and evidence to support the government's decision to outsource the Centrelink call centre function to the private sector, the public has a right to know how the government makes decisions on their behalf. It would not be in the interests of the public for the department to use this as a reason to avoid public scrutiny.

Now that the decision has been made and the process of outsourcing has begun I request the document be made available to the public also noting it is no longer a deliberative process. For these reasons it is against the spirit of the FOI Act (and disclosure) to withhold information which supports the government's decision to make a major change to government processes.

Thank you in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Evelyn Doyle

FREEDOMOFINFORMATION,

 

 

24 April 2019

 

 

 

 

 

Our reference: LEX 43923

Ms Evelyn Doyle

 

By email: [FOI #5299 email]

 

Dear Ms Doyle

Internal Review Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information Request

I refer to your request for internal review of the Freedom of Information
(FOI) decision dated 15 April 2019.

 

Decision on internal review

 

Your request was received by the department on 19 April 2019 and the 30
day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day
after that date. You should therefore expect a decision from us by 20 May
2019.

 

In accordance with s54C of the FOI Act a person (other than the person who
made the original decision) will be the decision maker for this internal
review.

 

Your Address

 

The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address which we can send
notices to. You have advised your electronic address is
[FOI #5299 email]. We will send all notices and
correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as possible if
you wish correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address
changes. If you do not advise us of changes to your address,
correspondence and notices will continue to be sent to the address
specified above.

 

Disclosure Log

 

Please note that information released under FOI Act may be published in a
disclosure log on the department's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act
requires this publication, however it is subject to certain exceptions,
including where publication of personal, business, professional or
commercial information would be unreasonable.

 

Exclusion of junior staff details

 

The department is working towards ensuring that all staff have a choice
about whether they provide their full name, personal logon identifiers and
direct contact details in response to public enquiries. Where such details
are included in the scope of a request, this may add to processing time
and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us
otherwise, we will assume that these details are out of scope of your
request and they will be redacted under section 22 of the FOI Act.

 

Further assistance

If you have any questions please email
[1][email address].

 

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

FOI Registration Officer

Freedom of Information Team

FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division

Department of Human Services

 

 

 

 

 

This email and any attachments may contain information subject to legal
professional privilege or information that is otherwise sensitive or
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FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

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Dear Ms Doyle

 

Please find attached the decision letter relating to your request for
documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

 

Kind regards

 

Bianca

Authorised FOI Decision Maker

Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division

Department of Human Services

 

Email: [1][email address]

 

This email and any attachments may contain information subject to legal
professional privilege or information that is otherwise sensitive or
confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are
prohibited from using or disseminating this communication. If you have
received this communication in error please notify the sender immediately
and permanently delete this email.

 

 

 

 

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Evelyn Doyle left an annotation ()

Department of Human Services has decided not to de-classify the document (Cabinet document) and make it available under FOI.

I am a bit disappointed that we cannot more thoroughly scrutinise the decision to outsource Centrelink call centre services to the private sector. However, there is another FOI request being processed for relevant briefings about the outsourcing project.