Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, , 3:17:55 to 3:23:32
Inquiry into Freedom of Information request backlogs, redaction justifications, and statutory timeframe compliance.
Topics: Freedom of information, Integrity
Speakers: Senator Fatima Payman, Stephanie Foster, Brooke Hartigan, Senator Jana Stewart, Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Chair. Um just on that previous line of questioning. Um I understand that Ms. Warner's position was made involuntarily redundant. Um was her role considered not not essential?
Uh so Senator Um We have not had any involuntary redundancies through the programme, either at SES or at um staff level. Um the process for um SES that they can either seek or be offered an incentive to retire. And the choice about whether to accept that incentive to retire lies with the employee.
So is anyone working in that role or comparable role right now?
My understanding is yes, Senator, if that's incorrect, I'll correct the record.
Thank you. Um just with my final questions around freedom of information requests that were made by Ms. Warner and so Ms. Warner submitted an FOI for documents relating to her return to work. The released FOI includes 17 documents. I'm curious to understand why the Department claimed that the volume of documents was so immense that they needed more time and delayed the request.
Senator, I don't have the details of that. Um if the FOI team or decision maker is here, I'd invite them to assist. Otherwise, we'll try and get you an answer on the timing and the reasons for that.
So is your FOI team here? Or no?
Uh Senator, I'm not sure whether it will be the FOI Central team or the decision makers who would be in another outcome.
Okay. Um I'll continue with those line of questionings, and I guess you can take them on notice. Um So the department redacted significant portions of the documents released citing public interest grounds. How can personal information of an individual requested by that individual for their own information be against the public interest?
So Senator, um again, that would require a detailed examination of the documents. That's not information I have available to me. So we may have to take your questions about the process on notice.
Thank you. Now the department also claimed public interest redactions on the basis of impacting officers' willingness to give advice. However, the FOI guidelines specifically state this is not sufficient ground to not release on its own. Why didn't the department follow the FOI guidelines?
So Senator, I'm very confident that the Department would have attempted to and believed it was following the guidelines. So let me take that on notice. Senator, as I said earlier, my understanding is that we always seek to and intend to comply with the FOI guidelines.
Ms. Warner submitted an internal review request and received a response citing in effect that the department is too busy to meet its statutory time frames for the review. How many FOI internal reviews does the department currently have?
Senator, I might ask the head of the FOI area to join me for that kind of generic departmental advice. My sort of a general statement is that we have an extraordinarily high number of FOI requests. We have quite a significant team assigned to processing them. I obviously have to make judgments about the various responsibilities that I have and how to allocate resources to that. We put as much into the FOI processing as we can, but we do struggle to meet the time frames.
So the specific questions have many FOI internal review requests does the department currently have. Thank you, Ms. Hartington Hardigan.
Thank you, Senator. I'm just trying to get that for you. So Brooke Hartigan, Deputy Secretary Legal Group. I think we've got seven internal reviews at the moment, Senator. But if that's incorrect, I'll correct the record.
Thank you. How many FOI internal reviews has the department failed to review within the statutory framework?
I'd have to take that on notice, Senator.
Thank you. And where the department can't meet the 30-day time frame, does it still complete the reviews and notify notify people?
We do, Senator. So it is our practice to continue to service the FOI request even where we don't meet the statutory time frames.
Wonderful. And you'll get back to me on how many haven't met that time frame. Yes. Great. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much. Senator Payman. Senator Dunning.