The Attorney General's appointment calendar related to meetings regarding online copyright
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
I require the disclosure of excerpts from the Attorney General's appointment calendar associated with meetings regarding online copyright.
For each meeting responsive to this request, the excerpt should include:
1. The time and date of the meeting,
2. The place of the meeting,
3. The job functions of members of the public service attending the meeting, or, where job functions aren't available, their names,
4. The names of any non-government stakeholders invited to the meeting,
5. The names of any other persons attending the meeting who were not invited; and
6. The intended subject matter of the meeting.
I anticipate that not all calendar entries will include all of the attributes listed above, but I expect full disclosure of those that do.
I am not requesting the minutes of the meetings: those documents would disclose the content of the meetings' communications; I'm just requesting the metadata.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Newton
Thank you for your email. This is an automated response to advise you that
your email has been received by the Attorney-General's Department's FOI
Coordinator.
If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in
writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to
access. The FOI Coordinator will acknowledge your request within 14 days.
Privacy Collection Notice
When you make a request for documents or an inquiry about privacy matters,
the Attorney-General’s Department will only collect your personal
information where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to,
our functions under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 or the Privacy Act
1988. We may collect your name, email address and telephone number so that
we can contact you about your request under the Freedom of Information Act
for access to documents or access to, or correction of, personal
information; or a complaint you have made or your request for access to,
or correction of, personal information under the Privacy Act. If your
request concerns your personal information, we will collect the minimum
amount of evidence necessary to verify your identity. The handling of your
personal information is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 and our privacy
policy is available at http://www.ag.gov.au/Pages/Privacystatem....
If you have an enquiry or complaint about your privacy, please contact the
Privacy Contact Officer on 02 6141 2660 or via e-mail [email address].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Newton
Transfer of freedom of information request to another agency.
I refer to your request for access to documents relating to the
Attorney-General’s appointment calendar and online copyright under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
I am writing to tell you that your request has been transferred to the
Office of the Attorney-General. Under section 16(1) of the FOI Act, a
request may be transferred if the requested document is not in the
Department’s possession but in the possession of another agency or if the
subject matter of the document is more closely connected with the
functions of another agency.
Accordingly, on 30 January 2015, your request was transferred to the
Office of the Attorney-General which has possession of the requested
documents and whose functions are more closely connected to the subject
area.
We received your request on 22 January 2015 and the 30 day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the day after that
date. The Office of the Attorney-General will treat your request as
though it received it the same day that we did. You should therefore
expect a decision from Office of the Attorney-General by 21 February
2015. The period of 30 days may be extended if Office of the
Attorney-General needs to consult third parties or for other reasons.
They will advise you if this happens.
Regards
Jo
FOI Contact Officer
Freedom of Information and Privacy Section | Office of Corporate Counsel
Attorney-General's Department | 3 - 5 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600
*: [1][AGD request email]
Privacy Collection Notice
When you make a request for documents or an inquiry about privacy matters,
the Attorney-General s Department will only collect your personal
information where it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to,
our functions under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 or the Privacy Act
1988. We may collect your name, email address and telephone number so that
we can contact you about your request under the Freedom of Information Act
for access to documents or access to, or correction of, personal
information; or a complaint you have made or your request for access to,
or correction of, personal information under the Privacy Act. If your
request concerns your personal information, we will collect the minimum
amount of evidence necessary to verify your identity. The handling of your
personal information is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 and our privacy
policy is available at http://www.ag.gov.au/Pages/Privacystatem....
If you have an enquiry or complaint about your privacy, please contact the
Privacy Contact Officer on 02 6141 2660 or via e-mail [email address].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[AGD request email]
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Newton,
Please find attached a letter from the Office of the Attorney-General
about your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
Regards,
Office of the Attorney-General
Dear Attorney Correspondence,
I believe the extended consultation period for my request has now been exceeded. By law, under all circumstances, you ought to have responded by now.
Please respond today, or, alternatively, escalate my request for an internal review today.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Newton
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Newton,
Thank you for your email below. The Office of the Attorney-General is still processing your request and we expect to have a decision for you in the coming days.
If you would like to discuss, please call this Office on 02 6277 7300.
Kind regards,
Office of the Attorney-General
Dear Sir/Madam,
The last communication from you on this matter was on March 24th, indicating that the matter was under internal review.
That was approximately six weeks ago. Can you please provide me with an update?
Yours sincerely,
Mark Newton
Dear Attorney Correspondence,
The last communication received from you on this matter was in March 2015.
I attempted to obtain an update from you in May 2015.
We are now in the latter part of August 2015.
You have failed to respond to my correspondence for five months.
I require you to provide me with an immediate update.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Newton
Mark Newton left an annotation ()
http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/08/17/foi-...
Interesting article, citing an earlier article which says Andrew Metcalfe claims senior public servants are writing advice to Ministers on Post-It notes out of concern that someone might FOI it.
Makes me think: What is it about a Post-It note that exempts it from FOI? It's a written document; I see no exemption in the regulations based on page size. Metcalfe's comments seem to indicate that senior public servants are acting unlawfully by destroying (screwing up, throwing away) documents which are required to be kept and disclosed under FOI.
James Henstridge left an annotation ()
It looks like Mark Dreyfus has also been having trouble getting access to Brandis's appointment calendar:
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-new...
Dear Attorney-General's Department,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Attorney-General's Department's handling of my FOI request 'The Attorney General's appointment calendar related to meetings regarding online copyright'.
I initially made this FOI request in February of this year. It is now mid-November, well outside the statutory requirements for responding to FOI requests.
Due to your delays, I requested an internal review in April, seven months ago. You have not even deigned to respond to that request, despite the unambiguous requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 ("The Act").
Section 11 of The Act says, "... every person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access in accordance with this Act to: (a) a document of an agency, other than an exempt document; or (b) an official document of a Minister, other than an exempt document." My request concerns an official document of a Minister, which is not an exempt document.
Your intransigence is unlawfully denying me my legislated right of access, and I demand that you provide me with an adequate remedy forthwith.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/t...
Yours faithfully,
Mark Newton
James Henstridge left an annotation ()
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal ordered that Brandis must process the similar FOI request from Mark Dreyfus:
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-new...
... but he is now appealing that ruling:
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-new...
If the original ruling is upheld, that might help in getting this one unblocked.
Dear Attorney Correspondence,
In light of the Attorney-General's loss in the Federal Court today, I expect and require that you will give this FOI application the most expeditious approval.
You are unlawfully over a year and a half late in responding to it.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Newton
Mark Newton left an annotation ()
The letter above indicates that AGD is seeking comments from individuals named in requested records, and has extended the response deadline to 23 March 2015.