** This is an automated response. Please do not reply to this email **

Thank you for contacting the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Your email has been received and will be actioned shortly.

National Information Access Processing

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

Phone: 1800 555 254

[1]www.dva.gov.au/about-us/our-business-reporting/freedom-information

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dva.gov.au/about-us/our-busin...

Dear Penny

Acknowledgement of your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request – FOI 38604

I refer to your request for access to documents held by the Department of
Veterans’ Affairs (Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (FOI Act).

Your request was received by the Department on 13 October 2020 and was
made in the following terms:

“In making this request I refer to the document"commonwealth contract
terms" specifically C.C.13 Specified Personnel paragraph 2.

I request any policy, regulation or guide which references to
"commonwealth contract terms" within the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Any correspondence being email, Skype or telephone transcripts at the
Perth office of the department of Veteran affairs between senior personal,
including aps 6 and above workers, and external correspondence with labour
hire companies ie. Adecco, Hudson in which C.C.13 Specified Personnel of
the commonwealth contract terms have been a basis for the communication in
regards labour hire employee.

This would include any correspondence which may not directly refer to the
Commonwealth contract terms but is written with the intent of executing
rights as the "customer", specifically C. C. 13 PARAGRAPH 2 and the
replacement of specified personal.

minutes/correspondence/policy/procedure executed by DVA having reference
to, one or more of the below terms:

Commonwealth contract terms

C. C. 13

(b) is not a fit and proper person”

The Department has 30 days to finalise your request. The 30 day statutory
timeframe commenced the day after your request was received by the
Department.

Whilst you ordinarily should expect a decision from the Department by 12
November 2020, this time is suspended by the Department’s intention to
undertake a practical refusal consultation process with you as a result of
your request (per section 24AB of the FOI Act). Please refer to the
“Revision/ reduction of scope of request” section of this email and
provide us with your response by close of business on Wednesday, 28
October 2020.

Interrupted work practices impacted by COVID-19

The Department is continuing to work through its FOI case load as quickly
as possible. However, the Department is and will continue to experience an
interruption in the way it will be able to manage FOI requests.

As you are likely to be aware, COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has been declared a
pandemic by the World Health Organisation.

As the Department focuses its efforts on managing the impact of COVID-19
on its critical services and employees, other non-critical services may
not be delivered within expected timeframes. It is possible that during
this time, business areas that would ordinarily have capacity to undertake
searches and assist in the processing of FOI requests may not be readily
available to provide that assistance. This may have an impact on the
manner and timeframe in which the Department can process FOI requests.

We apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and
cooperation during this period.

Revision/ reduction of scope of request

Section 24 of the FOI Act provides that if the Department is satisfied
that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to a request, the
Department undertake a consultation process with you – i.e. the Department
must give you an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a
‘request consultation process’.

The practical refusal reasons applicable to your request is that
processing your request, as best the Department can understand the terms
of the same, is likely to result in a substantial and unreasonable
diversion of the Department’s resources from its other operations (section
24AA(1)(a) of the FOI Act).

Given the broad nature of your request, a voluminous and substantial
amount of material is likely to be identified as part of any search and
retrieval activities undertaken by the Department. Each page of the
material retrieved will then need to be reviewed so as to advise the FOI
Officer on the sensitivities contained within the documents (as part of
the FOI decision making process), and the FOI Officer will then need to
review each page of the material in order to draft a decision regarding
access (including the preparation of a document bundle and a statement of
reasons).

Consequently, it is considered that your request, at face value,
constitutes an unreasonable burden for the Department, in circumstances
where your request will substantially affect the “business as usual” work
of the business area(s) that will be required to process your request and
where your request also impacts the Department’s ability to process the
multiple FOI requests that it receives from multiple applicants at any
given time.

You now have an opportunity to revise your request so that the grounds for
a practical refusal are removed. Revising your request can mean narrowing
the scope of the request to make it more manageable or explaining, in more
detail, the documents you wish to access. In considering a revision and/or
reduction of scope, so as to try and remove any practical refusal reason,
you may want to consider one or more of the following:

-          Providing further clarification about the information and/or
specific documents that you are seeking access to. For example, any
version of the material that you are seeking and/or a date range for the
material that you are seeking.

-          Narrowing the scope of the types of information sought to a
more specific subject matter. For example, if you are seeking any
correspondence that pertains to a specific individual and/or organisation,
or a particular process undertaken by the Department such as a particular
procurement activity.

-          Restricting the date range of the material sought to a specific
period of time (for example, within the last year).

Please note that even if you do modify your request, it is possible that a
practical refusal reason under section 24AA may still exist and/or the
Department may need further time to process your revised request. This
will depend on the revision you agree to make. As far as is reasonably
practicable, we are happy to provide you with further information to
assist you in revising your request so that it removes the practical
refusal grounds.

Please respond in writing by close of business on Wednesday, 28 October
2020 (being 14 days from the date of this email) either:

-          withdrawing your request;

-          making a revised request; or

-          indicating that you do not wish to revise the request.

During this period, you can ask for my help to revise your request. If you
revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical
refusal grounds outlined above, we will recommence processing it. As
indicated above, the time given to the Department to process your request
is suspended while this process takes place and will recommence on
completion of the consultation process, in accordance with Section 24AB of
the FOI Act. The Department will advise you of the revised date for its
response to your request on completion of the consultation process.

When the processing period may be extended or suspended

As noted above, there are times when the timeframe for processing your
request might be extended by an additional 30 days. This can occur where
an extension of time has been agreed to by yourself under section 15AA of
the FOI Act or where the OAIC has granted an extension of time under
sections 15AB or 15AC of the FOI Act.

In addition, if documents you seek contain information of third parties
and the Department is of the view that it is practical to consult with the
third parties, then the Department will be afforded an additional 30 days
to undertake that consolation process (see sections 15(6), 26A, 27 and 27A
of the FOI Act).

The Department will advise you if a third party consultation process is
required and of the revised due date for your request to be finalised by.

As you are not seeking access to your own personal information, charges
may apply.

Communication with you

The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address which we can send
notices to. You have advised your address is

[1][FOI #6796 email]. We will send all notices
and correspondence to this address. Please advise us 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.

FOI Disclosure log – Publication of documents released under the FOI Act

Please note that information released under the FOI Act may be published
in a disclosure log on the Department’s website at
[2]https://www.dva.gov.au/about-us/overview....
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.

When a decision is provided to you, the Department will advise if the
documents released to you will be published on the Department’s FOI
Disclosure log.

Contacting us about your FOI request

We will email again when the Department has more information. Should you
have any enquiries concerning this matter, please send an email to
[3][email address]

Further information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the
OAIC at [4]https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor....

Yours sincerely

Mary (Position Number 62230915)

Legal Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [5][email address] | [6]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[7]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

[8]cid:image001.png@01D32593.9CC39540The Department acknowledges the
Traditional Owners of the land throughout Australia and their continuing
connection to country, sea and community. We pay our respect to all
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their cultures and to their
elders past and present.

show quoted sections

Dear Penny

Your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request – FOI 38604

I refer to your request for access to documents held by the Department of
Veterans’ Affairs (Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (FOI Act).

Revision/ reduction of the scope of your request

In our email of 14 October 2020, we sought clarification of the scope of
your request in circumstances where, after careful consideration, we
consider that your request, at face value, could constitute an
unreasonable burden for the Department owing to the broad and unclear
nature of your request. In our email, we made reference to Section 24 of
the FOI Act and requested a response from you within 14 days (in
accordance with Section 24AB(6) of the FOI Act).

Please note that this was a typographical error.

Consultation regarding the scope of your request

I have carefully considered the terms of your request and invite you to
consider revising its terms. In doing so, I am not yet issuing you with a
request consultation notice under Section 24AB of the FOI Act. The reason
that I have not yet issued a Section 24AB notice is to afford you an
initial opportunity to reframe your request before the Department puts you
on notice that it does not consider your request meets the requirements of
section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act.

I consider it appropriate to seek clarification from you about aspects of
your request. The terms of your request are as follows:

“In making this request I refer to the document"commonwealth contract
terms" specifically C.C.13 Specified Personnel paragraph 2.

I request any policy, regulation or guide which references to
"commonwealth contract terms" within the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Any correspondence being email, Skype or telephone transcripts at the
Perth office of the department of Veteran affairs between senior personal,
including aps 6 and above workers, and external correspondence with labour
hire companies ie. Adecco, Hudson in which C.C.13 Specified Personnel of
the commonwealth contract terms have been a basis for the communication in
regards labour hire employee.

This would include any correspondence which may not directly refer to the
Commonwealth contract terms but is written with the intent of executing
rights as the "customer", specifically C. C. 13 PARAGRAPH 2 and the
replacement of specified personal.

minutes/correspondence/policy/procedure executed by DVA having reference
to, one or more of the below terms:

Commonwealth contract terms

C. C. 13

(b) is not a fit and proper person”

The expansion of your request increases the likelihood that a practical
refusal reason exists in relation to your request, in circumstances where
your request is highly likely to result in a voluminous and substantial
amount of material being identified as part of any search and retrieval
activities undertaken by the Department and where the request will
substantially affect the “business as usual” work of the relevant business
area(s) of the Department (including the Department’s ability to process
the multiple FOI requests that it receives from multiple applicants at any
given time).

Accordingly, I request that you consider revising or reducing the scope of
your request. In doing so, you may wish to consider one or more of the
following:

-          Providing further clarification about the information and/or
specific documents that you are seeking access to. For example, any
version of the material that you are seeking and/or a date range for the
material that you are seeking.

-          Narrowing the scope of the types of information sought to a
more specific subject matter. For example, if you are seeking any
correspondence that pertains to a specific individual and/or organisation,
or a particular process undertaken by the Department such as a particular
procurement activity.

-          Restricting the date range of the material sought to a specific
period of time (for example, within the last year).

Please respond in writing as soon as possible either:

-          withdrawing your request;

-          making a revised request; or

-          indicating that you do not wish to revise the request.

During this period, you can ask for my help to revise your request.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you wish to discuss any of the
matters above.

Kind regards,

Mary (Position Number 62230915)

Legal Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [1][email address] | [2]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

[4]cid:image001.png@01D32593.9CC39540The Department acknowledges the
Traditional Owners of the land throughout Australia and their continuing
connection to country, sea and community. We pay our respect to all
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their cultures and to their
elders past and present.

show quoted sections

Dear Penny

I refer to the email correspondence below.

Could you please confirm whether you have considered revising the scope of
your request at this time?

In revising the scope of your request, you may wish to consider one or
more of the following:

-          Providing further clarification about the information and/or
specific documents that you are seeking access to. For example, any
version of the material that you are seeking and/or a date range for the
material that you are seeking.

-          Narrowing the scope of the types of information sought to a
more specific subject matter. For example, if you are seeking any
correspondence that pertains to a specific individual and/or organisation,
or a particular process undertaken by the Department such as a particular
procurement activity.

-          Restricting the date range of the material sought to a specific
period of time (for example, within the last year).

If I don’t receive a response from you by COB 21 October 2020, I intend to
formally consult with you under section 24AB of the FOI Act.

Kind regards,

Molly (Position Number 62213164)

Legal Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [1][email address] | [2]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

[4]cid:image001.png@01D32593.9CC39540The Department acknowledges the
Traditional Owners of the land throughout Australia and their continuing
connection to country, sea and community. We pay our respect to all
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their cultures and to their
elders past and present.

From: INFORMATION.LAW
Sent: Friday, 16 October 2020 7:21 PM
To: '[FOI #6796 email]'
Cc: INFORMATION.LAW
Subject: FOI 38604 - Your FOI request - your instructions required
[SEC=OFFICIAL]

Dear Penny

Your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request – FOI 38604

I refer to your request for access to documents held by the Department of
Veterans’ Affairs (Department) under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (FOI Act).

Revision/ reduction of the scope of your request

In our email of 14 October 2020, we sought clarification of the scope of
your request in circumstances where, after careful consideration, we
consider that your request, at face value, could constitute an
unreasonable burden for the Department owing to the broad and unclear
nature of your request. In our email, we made reference to Section 24 of
the FOI Act and requested a response from you within 14 days (in
accordance with Section 24AB(6) of the FOI Act).

Please note that this was a typographical error.

Consultation regarding the scope of your request

I have carefully considered the terms of your request and invite you to
consider revising its terms. In doing so, I am not yet issuing you with a
request consultation notice under Section 24AB of the FOI Act. The reason
that I have not yet issued a Section 24AB notice is to afford you an
initial opportunity to reframe your request before the Department puts you
on notice that it does not consider your request meets the requirements of
section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act.

I consider it appropriate to seek clarification from you about aspects of
your request. The terms of your request are as follows:

“In making this request I refer to the document"commonwealth contract
terms" specifically C.C.13 Specified Personnel paragraph 2.

I request any policy, regulation or guide which references to
"commonwealth contract terms" within the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Any correspondence being email, Skype or telephone transcripts at the
Perth office of the department of Veteran affairs between senior personal,
including aps 6 and above workers, and external correspondence with labour
hire companies ie. Adecco, Hudson in which C.C.13 Specified Personnel of
the commonwealth contract terms have been a basis for the communication in
regards labour hire employee.

This would include any correspondence which may not directly refer to the
Commonwealth contract terms but is written with the intent of executing
rights as the "customer", specifically C. C. 13 PARAGRAPH 2 and the
replacement of specified personal.

minutes/correspondence/policy/procedure executed by DVA having reference
to, one or more of the below terms:

Commonwealth contract terms

C. C. 13

(b) is not a fit and proper person”

The expansion of your request increases the likelihood that a practical
refusal reason exists in relation to your request, in circumstances where
your request is highly likely to result in a voluminous and substantial
amount of material being identified as part of any search and retrieval
activities undertaken by the Department and where the request will
substantially affect the “business as usual” work of the relevant business
area(s) of the Department (including the Department’s ability to process
the multiple FOI requests that it receives from multiple applicants at any
given time).

Accordingly, I request that you consider revising or reducing the scope of
your request. In doing so, you may wish to consider one or more of the
following:

-          Providing further clarification about the information and/or
specific documents that you are seeking access to. For example, any
version of the material that you are seeking and/or a date range for the
material that you are seeking.

-          Narrowing the scope of the types of information sought to a
more specific subject matter. For example, if you are seeking any
correspondence that pertains to a specific individual and/or organisation,
or a particular process undertaken by the Department such as a particular
procurement activity.

-          Restricting the date range of the material sought to a specific
period of time (for example, within the last year).

Please respond in writing as soon as possible either:

-          withdrawing your request;

-          making a revised request; or

-          indicating that you do not wish to revise the request.

During this period, you can ask for my help to revise your request.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you wish to discuss any of the
matters above.

Kind regards,

Mary (Position Number 62230915)

Legal Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [5][email address] | [6]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[7]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

[8]cid:image001.png@01D32593.9CC39540The Department acknowledges the
Traditional Owners of the land throughout Australia and their continuing
connection to country, sea and community. We pay our respect to all
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their cultures and to their
elders past and present.

show quoted sections

** This is an automated response. Please do not reply to this email **

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Thank you for your email. The Department will take all reasonable efforts
to respond to your email and process your request.

Please note that due the threat of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), the Department
is experiencing a diversion of resources that are critical to managing
Australia’s response. This means we may not be able to process your
request within the expected timeframe and where needed, will be seeking
extensions of time to manage requests and may need to consult with you if
your request is not clear or is for a large and unmanageable number of
documents. The Department remains committed to ensuring it can process as
many information access requests as it can during the pandemic. We ask for
your assistance by only making requests where they are of a priority and
to ensure those requests are as specific as possible.

We apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding,
cooperation and patience during this difficult time for all Australians.

More detailed messaging can be found on the Department’s website at
[1]https://www.dva.gov.au/newsroom/latest-n....

Kind regards,

Information Law Section
Department of Veterans' Affairs

References

Visible links
1. https://www.dva.gov.au/newsroom/latest-n...

Dear Penny,

The Department is considering issuing a notice to you under section 24AB
of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 in relation to FOI 38581 and FOI
38604.

As these requests are publicly available on the Right to Know website, the
Department can see that both of these requests are linked to the same
account.

Could you please confirm that you are the same applicant for both of these
requests?

Kind regards,

Famida (Position Number 62212449)

Information Access Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [1][email address] | [2]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

show quoted sections

** This is an automated response. Please do not reply to this email **

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Thank you for your email. The Department will take all reasonable efforts
to respond to your email and process your request.

Please note that due the threat of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), the Department
is experiencing a diversion of resources that are critical to managing
Australia’s response. This means we may not be able to process your
request within the expected timeframe and where needed, will be seeking
extensions of time to manage requests and may need to consult with you if
your request is not clear or is for a large and unmanageable number of
documents. The Department remains committed to ensuring it can process as
many information access requests as it can during the pandemic. We ask for
your assistance by only making requests where they are of a priority and
to ensure those requests are as specific as possible.

We apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding,
cooperation and patience during this difficult time for all Australians.

More detailed messaging can be found on the Department’s website at
[1]https://www.dva.gov.au/newsroom/latest-n....

Kind regards,

Information Law Section
Department of Veterans' Affairs

References

Visible links
1. https://www.dva.gov.au/newsroom/latest-n...

Dear Penny,

I refer to your FOI matters 38581 and 38604.

Please find attached, a notice issued under section 24AB of the [1]Freedom
of Information Act 1982.

Kind regards,

Famida (Position Number 62212449)

Information Access Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [2][email address] | [3]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[4]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

IMPORTANT: This document contains legal advice and may be subject to legal
professional privilege. Unless it is waived or lost, legal professional
privilege is a rule of law that, in part, provides that the client need
not disclose confidential communications between a legal practitioner and
client. To keep this privilege, the purpose and content of this advice
must only be disclosed to persons who have a need to know and on the basis
that those persons also keep it confidential.

You should consider this advice and take it into account when forming a
decision on how best to proceed. If you decide to adopt a position that
does not align with this advice, you should not state that DVA Legal
Services & Audit Branch has cleared or endorsed a particular position.

show quoted sections

Dear Penny,

I refer to your FOI matters 38581 and 38604.

Please find attached, a notice issued under section 24AB of the [1]Freedom
of Information Act 1982.

Kind regards,

Famida (Position Number 62212449)

Information Access Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [2][email address] | [3]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[4]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

IMPORTANT: This document contains legal advice and may be subject to legal
professional privilege. Unless it is waived or lost, legal professional
privilege is a rule of law that, in part, provides that the client need
not disclose confidential communications between a legal practitioner and
client. To keep this privilege, the purpose and content of this advice
must only be disclosed to persons who have a need to know and on the basis
that those persons also keep it confidential.

You should consider this advice and take it into account when forming a
decision on how best to proceed. If you decide to adopt a position that
does not align with this advice, you should not state that DVA Legal
Services & Audit Branch has cleared or endorsed a particular position.

show quoted sections

Good afternoon Ms Imnes

Thank you for your below email.

The Department is currently undertaking a review of the decision made on
11 January 2021 with reference FOI IR 10420 which relates to your request
FOI 38581.

I note that your requests with references FOI 38581 and 38604, were merged
and this was notified to you in our letter dated 29 October 2020.

The reference number for this merged request is FOI 38581.

The internal review in relation to FOI 38581 is due for release to you on
10 February 2021.

If you are seeking a review of another request, can you please advise
which request this is for as the link provided below relates to the above
mentioned request.

Kind regards,

Tayla (Position Number 62213294)

Information Access Officer

Information Law Section

Legal Services and Audit Branch

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

t 1800 555 254 | e [1][email address] | [2]www.dva.gov.au

p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601

[3]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

IMPORTANT: This document contains legal advice and may be subject to legal
professional privilege. Unless it is waived or lost, legal professional
privilege is a rule of law that, in part, provides that the client need
not disclose confidential communications between a legal practitioner and
client. To keep this privilege, the purpose and content of this advice
must only be disclosed to persons who have a need to know and on the basis
that those persons also keep it confidential.

You should consider this advice and take it into account when forming a
decision on how best to proceed. If you decide to adopt a position that
does not align with this advice, you should not state that DVA Legal
Services & Audit Branch has cleared or endorsed a particular position.

show quoted sections