Video Game Warface & PlanetSide 2

. made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Communications and the Arts

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 successful.

I request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 for access to application and its supporting material/attachment, all notes, and reports for the video game Warface, PlanetSide 2.

If possible without third party consultation delete only the last 4 digits of phone numbers and local-part of email addresses if these need to edited to avoid third party consultation.

I also request not to exclude from the scope of this FOI request the following information:
• personal information of junior ministerial staff and Departmental officers below the Senior Executive Service (SES) level
• mobile phone numbers and signatures of Departmental SES officers.

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear .

I acknowledge receipt of your FOI request below, received 7 January 2019.

You will be notified of any charges payable in relation to your request or of a decision regarding your FOI request as soon as this has been determined.

Third party Consultation

While processing your request, the department has identified that your request includes documents containing personal information and/or business information of a person or an organisation. In accordance with section 27A and section 20 of the FOI Act, the department is required to consult with those entities before making a decision on release of documents.

To allow this, the processing time limit for your request has been extended by 30 days in accordance with section 15(6) of the FOI Act. Your request is currently due on 8 March 2019.

Your Privacy

Your personal information has been collected by the department as a result of your correspondence, and will be used in order to process the FOI request. Personal information is handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988. The department’s Privacy Policy is available on our website and contains information about how the department handles your personal information.

Kind regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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What in my request requires third party consultation?

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi

The documents contain personal and business information of the classification applicants. The FOI Act requires that we consult on release of that information.

Regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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Would there be a need to consult third party if the whole phone number and email address are deleted?

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi .

Yes, there would still be a need for consultation. Your request is for background documents relating to the assessment of the classification of a product, submitted by an individual or business. Having reviewed the documents, I don't think it is possible to delete information from those documents to a point that we would not need to consult on release.

I note the final reports on classification are available for free by emailing enquiries(at)classification.gov.au. But if you wish to request all other documents related to the classification process on any product, this will require you to go through the FOI process, which in turn is always likely to require the department to consult on release.

Regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear .

Attached is the charge estimate for your request.

Kind regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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I want to remove documents so the estimated total charge I pay is less than $40. To do that I need to know:
1. What documents were found?
2. What documents are estimated to take the most or more of the search and retrieval time?
3. What documents are estimated to take the most or more of the decision-making time?

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi .

The documents retrieved were those that you requested, ie. 'the application and its supporting material/attachment, all notes, and reports for the video game Warface, PlanetSide 2'.

Charge estimates are not broken down per document and are done as an estimate for retrieval and decision making for a whole request. Reducing the number of documents is not necessarily always going to reduce an FOI charge significantly, especially if the documents requested are on the same matter and contain similar exemption considerations (eg a consultation on two documents dealing with the same matter as opposed to four documents, is still likely to take the same amount of time). This is the case with your request.

Regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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I am reducing my request to application and its supporting material/attachment for the video game Warface.

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi .

Thanks. Further to note, you have three options at this stage of a request which were stated in the charges letter.

As reducing your request is not one of them, shall we take the below email to mean that you would like to withdraw your previous request and submit a new request for the documents below, 'application and its supporting material/attachment for the video game Warface'?

Regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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yes

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear .

Attached is the charge estimate for your request.

Regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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Is this request being processed, or did the clock stop the day this estimate was sent and I need to agree to it for the clock to start again?

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi . The answer to your question is in the letter. The clock stops when the estimate is sent and then you have various options for how you can continue.

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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I agree with the estimate.

UNCLASSIFIED

Thanks. You will now need to pay it as per the letter: "If you agree to pay the charge, you are required to pay the whole charge within 30 calendar days of receiving this notice."

Regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts [Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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Let me know if the bank account mentioned got $15. Don't include my name or the money sender's name when replying.

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi .

Yes. The payment was received. If you would like to receive a receipt please email foi(at)communications.gov.au.

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts

2 Phillip Law Street, Canberra ACT 2601
GPO Box 2154 Canberra, ACT 2601

communications.gov.au / @CommsAu
arts.gov.au / @artsculturegov

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. I recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

show quoted sections

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear .

Can I please confirm whether you would be willing to exclude names and personal contacts of individuals from the scope of your request? I am asking because unfortunately I have been unable to contact the individuals who submitted the application to confirm whether the release of their personal information would be an issue for them, and this would resolve that issue.

Note that excluding the personal information would not exclude information about the assessment of the game.

Kind regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

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The scope of this request includes the names and personal contacts of individuals.

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Requester

Please find attached the decision for your FOI request, the document release for your request is on our disclosure log (https://www.communications.gov.au/who-we...).

Kind regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

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I wish to access a version of the document containing personal information of the applications officer mentioned in document 2 and offensive language.

According to the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-infor... , "where public servants’ personal information is included in a document because of their usual duties or responsibilities, it would not be unreasonable to disclose unless special circumstances existed."

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Hi .

Documents showing profanity attached.
The personal information was exempted by the decision maker- reasons are explained in the letter, so I am not able to release the information.

Kind regards

Melissa
FOI Team
Department of Communications and the Arts
[Department of Communications and the Arts request email]

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