FOI Ref: 1506-F1187

File No: 15/25155

Dear Mr Cooper-Stout

Re: Freedom of Information (FOI) Request

Thank you for your email dated 9 June 2015 in which you seek access under
the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to:

The following documents:

(a) The letter from Special Rapporteur Michel Forst referenced in this
article:
[1]http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/p...
(b) The response from Ambassador Quinn;
(c) Any correspondence or communication between the Department and the
offices of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for
Immigration regarding the letters.

Searches are now being undertaken in relevant areas of the Department for
documents relevant to your request.  I will contact you again once the
searches have been completed.

Timeframe for receiving your decision:

We received your request on 9 June 2015 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 10 July 2015.  The period of
30 days may be extended in certain circumstances.  We will advise you if
there is any extension of time.

Scope of request:

If it emerges that the scope of your request is unclear or is too large
for processing, the Department will contact you to discuss re-scoping the
request.

Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details:

It is the Department’s policy to withhold the names and contact details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) within the Department
and other agencies contained within documents that fall within scope of
the request.  If you require the names and contact details of non-SES
officers please let us know at [2][DFAT request email] so the decision-maker
may consider; otherwise we will take it that you agree to that information
being excluded from the scope of your request.

Charges:

Please note that the Department issues charges for processing FOI
requests.  We will advise you of these charges when we are in a position
to estimate the resources required to process your request.

Timing of release:

As the subject matter of your request will require DFAT to upload any
documents released to you to the Department’s FOI Disclosure Log, I take
this opportunity to advise you that the Department’s policy is to upload
released documents within one business day of your receipt of the
documents. 

Personal Information:

Your personal information has been collected by the Department as a result
of your correspondence, and will be used in order to process your FOI
request.  Your personal information is protected by law, including the
Privacy Act 1988.  The Department’s privacy policy is available at
[3]dfat.gov.au/privacy.html and contains information about access to or
correction of your personal information, and how you may complain about a
breach of your privacy.

Please note that if we need to consult with other people regarding release
of the documents you have requested, we may need to disclose your personal
information. When we consult with other people about a request you have
made, it may be apparent to those people that you have made a request,
even if we do not disclose your identity. If you have concerns about the
Department consulting with other people about your request, please let us
know your concerns.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to
contact me on (02) 6261 1142, or by return email.

Please note a copy of this email has been sent to Ms Indra McCormick,
Director, Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section, for her
information.

Yours sincerely

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Jennifer Streat | |
| |  |
|Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Freedom of Information and Privacy Law |     E |  | |
|Section |[email address]| |
|------------------------------------------+-----------------------------|
|Corporate Legal Branch |     T |  +61 2 6261 1142 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Legal Division |W |  [4]www.dfat.gov.au |  |
|--------------------------------------------+------------------------+--|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

show quoted sections

FOI Ref: 1506-F1187

File No: 15/25155

Dear Mr Cooper-Stout

Preliminary searches for documents relevant to your request have been
completed. The next step is to consider the application of section 29 of
the FOI Act, which concerns the charge, if any, for processing your
request.

Please find attached our letter concerning the charges estimate.

Yours sincerely

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Jennifer Streat | |
| |  |
|Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Freedom of Information and Privacy Law |     E |  | |
|Section |[email address]| |
|------------------------------------------+-----------------------------|
|Corporate Legal Branch |     T |  +61 2 6261 1142 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Legal Division |W |  [1]www.dfat.gov.au |  |
|--------------------------------------------+------------------------+--|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

show quoted sections

FOI Ref: 1506-F1187

File No: 15/25155

Dear Mr Cooper-Stout

Thank you for your email re-scoping your FOI request to:

(a) The letter from Special Rapporteur Michel Forst referenced in this
article:
[1]http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/p...

(b) The response from Ambassador Quinn;

Please note that the letter and response that you are seeking are publicly
available and can be found at:

[2]http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Reg...
, for document A/HRC/29/50 Communications report of special procedures, on
page 68 of the report you will find  a summary of the SRs letter, and a
hyperlink to the letter to Australia and a hyper link to Australia’s
reply.

However, if you wish to have these documents provided to you under FOI,
charges will apply.  Please advise if you wish to continue with your FOI
request.

Yours sincerely

Jennifer Streat

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

_____________________________________________________________________________

Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section        E:
[email address]

Corporate Legal Branch          
                                           T: +61 2 6261 1142

Legal
Division                                                                      
W: [3]www.dfat.gov.au

show quoted sections

FOI Ref: 1506-F1187

File No: 15/25155

Dear Mr Cooper-Stout

I refer to our email of 26 June 2015, in which we advised you that the
documents you now seek are publicly available.

As requested, we would be grateful for a response as to whether or not you
wish to continue with your FOI request.  If you do not advise us by COB 10
July 2015 that you wish to continue with this request, we will consider
your request to have been withdrawn.

Yours sincerely

Jennifer Streat

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

_____________________________________________________________________________

Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section        E:
[email address]

Corporate Legal Branch             
                                        T: +61 2 6261 1142

Legal
Division                                                                      
W: [1]www.dfat.gov.au

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Cooper-Stout

I refer to our email below, in which we advised you that the documents you
now seek are publicly available.  We also requested advice by COB 10 July
on whether or not you wished to proceed with your FOI request.  As you
have not responded noting that you wish to continue with the request, you
request has been considered to have been withdrawn.

Yours sincerely

Dr Ada Cheung

A/g Director

Freedom of information & Privacy Law Section

Corporate Legal Branch

Legal Division

From: Streat, Jennifer On Behalf Of FOI
Sent: Tuesday, 7 July 2015 9:03 AM
To: Jeremy Cooper-Stout ([FOI #1093 email])
Subject: Freedom of Information request [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

FOI Ref: 1506-F1187

File No: 15/25155

Dear Mr Cooper-Stout

I refer to our email of 26 June 2015, in which we advised you that the
documents you now seek are publicly available.

As requested, we would be grateful for a response as to whether or not you
wish to continue with your FOI request.  If you do not advise us by COB 10
July 2015 that you wish to continue with this request, we will consider
your request to have been withdrawn.

Yours sincerely

Jennifer Streat

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

_____________________________________________________________________________

Freedom of Information and Privacy Law Section        E:
[1][email address]

Corporate Legal Branch             
                                        T: +61 2 6261 1142

Legal
Division                                                                      
W: [2]www.dfat.gov.au

show quoted sections