The progress on reducing the Defence Force recruiting process to 100 days
Dear Department of Defence,
Recent senate estimates revealed that Defence is sitting at approximately 40% recruitment target achievement (trending). The ADF has been directed to increase by 30% to 80,000 personnel by 2040 at an estimated cost of more than $38 billion to the Australian taxpayer. The Australian Defence Force has claimed that Adecco will cut 200 days from its recruitment program to urgently boost the ranks to fill new national security capabilities being set out by the Defence Strategic Review. The current recruitment process averages 300 days.
This freedom of information request is seeking:
1. Confirmation of what plans are underway to reduce the time it takes to join the Australian Defence Force.
2. What progress has Adecco made to live up to the promises of a 100-day (or less) recruitment process? Noting that Adecco won the $1.2 Billion contract over a 6 year period which commenced mid-2023.
Yours faithfully,
Steve Green
OFFICIAL
Good morning Steve,
I refer to your email below, seeking access to information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).
I am writing to advise that, in its current form, your request is not considered valid under section 15(2)(b) [Requests for access] of the FOI Act, as you have not provided enough information regarding the documents you are seeking, to enable a responsible officer of the agency to identify them.
In addition, paragraph 2.33 of the OAIC’s FOI Guidelines provides: The right of access under the FOI Act is to existing documents, rather than to information.
As your request is seeking access to information rather than documents, these parts of the scope are not valid under the FOI Act. We ask that you please revise these parts of your request to specify the exact documents to which you are seeking access.
On this basis, Defence intends to refuse your request. However, I am writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Request consultation process;
In accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act, Defence is required to consult with you, in relation to the intention to refuse access to your request in its current form. As such, you now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.
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. For example, by providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in.
You now have 14 days to contact me and do one of the following:
a. withdraw your request
b. revise the scope of your request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.
If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above, we will recommence processing your request.
If you do not contact us within 14 days, that is by 5pm, 8 December 2023, your FOI request will be taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and will not be dealt with any further.
Kind regards,
Freedom of Information Team
Media and Information Disclosure Branch
Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division
Department of Defence
Freedom of information requests | About | Defence
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence. Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email immediately.
Dear FOI,
This is a specific request for tender documentation provided by Adecco for '80111700 - Personnel recruitment, ATM type: Request for Proposal'. I am requesting the following documentation:
- Stage Two final submission of Adecco’s tender response.
- Recruiting Services Contract (RSC) managed by Defence Force Recruiting. The scope of the RSC should include marketing (including attraction), recruiting operations (including candidate management), medical and psychological testing and assessment, ICT Services, facilities management and supporting administrative requirements.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Green
OFFICIAL
Dear Steve,
Acknowledgement
I refer to your correspondence of 29 January 2024 seeking access to
documents held by the Department of Defence (Defence), under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). This email is to advise you that your
request has been received and allocated for Case Management.
The scope of your request is:
… for tender documentation provided by Adecco for '80111700 - Personnel
recruitment, ATM type: Request for Proposal'. I am requesting the
following documentation:
• Stage Two final submission of Adecco’s tender response.
• Recruiting Services Contract (RSC) managed by Defence Force
Recruiting. The scope of the RSC should include marketing (including
attraction), recruiting operations (including candidate management),
medical and psychological testing and assessment, ICT Services, facilities
management and supporting administrative requirements.
Disclaimer
Where staff details are captured in documents within the scope of your FOI
request, this information will be redacted; this includes private email
addresses, signatures, personnel (PMKeyS) numbers and mobile telephone
numbers, unless you specifically request such details. Defence excludes
duplicates of documents and any documents sent to or from you.
Furthermore, Defence only considers final versions of documents.
Charges
Defence may impose a charge for the work involved in providing access to
the documents in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Charges)
Regulations 2019. We will notify you if your request attracts a charge.
Please note that there is no charge for documents that contain the
personal information of the applicant.
Timeframe
The statutory timeframe to provide you with a decision on your request
ends on 28 February 2024. This period may be extended if we need to
consult with third parties or for other reasons. We will advise you if
this happens.
Please note that where the due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public
holiday, the timeframe will expire on the next working day. This is in
accordance with the FOI Guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner under section 93A of the FOI Act.
Disclosure Log
Documents released under the FOI Act may be published on Defence’s
disclosure log, located on our website.
Contact Details
We will contact you via the email address you have provided. Please advise
if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact.
I am the Case Manager for this request. Should you have any questions
relating to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me via email:
[1][email address].
Kind regards,
Nicole|FOI Case Manager
Media and Information Disclosure Branch
Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division
Department of Defence
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
[2]Freedom of information requests | About | Defence
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.defence.gov.au/about/accessi...
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon Steve,
I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI
Act) regarding Adecco.
Practical refusal
I am writing to advise that the work involved in processing your request
in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the
resources of the Department of Defence (Defence) from its other operations
due to its size and complexity. This is called a ‘practical refusal
reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.
On this basis, Defence intends to refuse your request. However, before a
final decision is made, I am writing to provide you with an opportunity to
revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation process’, as
explained in section 24AB of the FOI Act. You will have 14 days to respond
to this notice in one of the ways set out further below.
Why the intention to refuse your request
Preliminary searches have been carried out for documents within the scope
of your request. These document searches have revealed your request to be
particularly voluminous, involving tens of thousands of documents many of
which are commercially sensitive. The Adecco contract contains 4,500
pages, which using a conservative of 1 minute to review each page would
take one full time staff member 75 hours or 2 weeks to consider this
document alone.
It is estimated from these preliminary document searches that it would
take well in excess of 100 hours to:
o examine the documents which are likely to be relevant to your request;
o undertake necessary consultations;
o undertake the decision making process;
o prepare a schedule of documents; and
o prepare the documents according to the decision.
Accordingly, Defence is of the view that the work involved in processing
this request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of
Defence from its other operations.
Consequently, Defence considers that a 'practical refusal reason' exists
in relation to your FOI request, in accordance with section 24AA of the
FOI Act.
Request consultation process
In accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act, Defence is required to
consult with you in relation to the intention to refuse access to your
request in its current form. As such, you now have an opportunity to
revise your request to enable it to proceed.
Revising your request could mean providing more specific details about the
subject matter that you are seeking. In this way, our agency would be able
to pinpoint the documents that you are seeking more quickly and avoid
using resources to process excessive documents that you are not interested
in. It might also be beneficial to consider narrowing the scope by
specifying particular projects in order to make the size of the request
more manageable.
Next Steps
You now have 14 days to contact me and do one of the following:
a. revise the scope of your request
b. withdraw your request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.
If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the
practical refusal reason as outlined above, we will recommence processing
your request.
If you do not contact me within 14 days, that is, by 22 February 2024,
your FOI request will be treated as withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and
not dealt with any further.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further
assistance.
Kind regards,
Nicole|FOI Case Manager
Media and Information Disclosure Branch
Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division
Department of Defence
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
[1]Freedom of information requests | About | Defence
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.defence.gov.au/about/accessi...
Dear FOI Case Management,
Thank you for your email and response, please see revised scope:
1. Stage Two final submission of Adecco’s tender response that specifically refers to the plans for how Adecco is going to reduce the current recruitment process to 100 days. This is to also include timeframes.
- Recruiting Services Contract (RSC) managed by Defence Force Recruiting. The scope of the RSC should include how Defence is holding Adecco to account for failing to meet recruitment targets.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Green
Dear FOI Case Management,
I note that you are now outside of the required window in providing a response. As this request is not fulfilled under the month timeline, the Department of Defence is breaking the law.
What is the update on the status of this request?
Yours sincerely,
Steve G
OFFICIAL
Dear Steve,
Please find attached the Decision relating to Defence FOI 645/23/24.
Review Rights
If you disagree with the decision made by the Department of Defence or the
Minister under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act), you can
ask for the decision to be reviewed. You may want to seek review if you
sought certain documents and were not given full access, if your
application to have your personal information amended was not accepted or
your comments in response to formal consultation were not accepted.
You must apply in writing and should include a copy of the notice of the
decision provided and the points to which you are objecting and why. You
may apply directly to the Information Commissioner, within 60 days of
receiving your decision.
Further information about the external review process or how to make a
complaint to the Information Commissioner is available:
Online: [1]www.oaic.gov.au
Post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2000
Email: [2][email address]
Regards,
FOI Case Manager
Media and Information Disclosure Branch
Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division
Department of Defence
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
[3]Freedom of information requests | About | Defence
IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://www.defence.gov.au/about/accessi...
Dear Department of Defence,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Defence's handling of my FOI request 'The progress on reducing the Defence Force recruiting process to 100 days'.
Whilst I can appreciate the amount of work needed to respond to this request in its entirety is large, there has been no effort to provide an alternate solution. Can the Department provide an option that responds to this request through a summary? I don't believe there are grounds to completely refute this request based entirely on 'time to review' and will seek further legal guidance should this be the reason.
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,
Steve Green
OFFICIAL
Good afternoon Mr Green,
Thank you for your email below.
While applicants ordinarily have a right to an internal review, according to section 15AC of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), this only applies when the original decision is made within the legislative time period, including any extensions of time agreed to in accordance with the FOI Act.
As per section 15AC of the FOI Act, once the legislative time period for the Department to provide you with a decision has passed, it becomes a 'deemed decision'. The Department is unable to conduct an internal review once a decision becomes a deemed decision (in accordance with section 54E of the FOI Act). As such, these deemed decisions can only be reviewed by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
In your case, as you received the decision on 15 March 2024, which was outside the statutory due date, the decision was a deemed decision. Accordingly, we are unable to conduct an internal review under the FOI Act.
As stated in the email of 15 March 2024, you may seek to apply for an external review with the OAIC.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Review Team
Media and Information Disclosure Branch
Ministerial & Executive Coordination and Communication Division
Department of Defence