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What happens when you make a Freedom of Information (FOI) application?
Freedom of Information Application 2361
The Education Queensland Freedom of Information officers seem to mislead you into worrying that you are going to have to pay huge fees for personal documents. But personal documents are free.
The Freedom of Information officers may close down your application without your knowledge or permission.
This forces you to start the FOI application process all over again, and delays your application for several months. This significantly disadvantages you.
Several of your documents may "vanish" during the FOI process. They may be described to you by the FOI officers. But then they "vanish".
I first began trying to get copies of my documents on 24 September 2003.
I emailed Informationprivacy@qed.qld.gov.au and mailbox@justice.qld.gov.au
Hello,
... I asked (school administrator G. R.) to attend an arbitrated meeting with the local union organiser to sort out the problems between us.
She said she would meet me to discuss putting me on DWP.
I said I would make a grievance.
The union organiser told me there was no hope of justice.
She put me on DWP...
... I now intend to ask the advice of a solicitor.
I suspect that I may have been discriminated against...
... How do I go about finding out why I was put on DWP?
I am reluctant to contact the District Office because there are conflict of interest issues...
I had no response to this email, so on 26 September 2003 sent a similar email to mailbox@justice.qld.gov.au
On 29 September 2003 InformationPrivacy. EXECLEGL@qed.qld.gov.au advised me that my email had been forwarded to Education Queensland FOI coordinator A. S.
I now realise that it would have been obvious to EQ FOI coordinator A. S. on September 29 2003 that my application was "personal" and that no FOI fees would be payable.
I should have been provided with these documents free of charge by late November 2003.
But I am still waiting to receive copies of many of these documents to this date - February 2008.
But on 28 October 2003 EQ FOI coordinator A. S. wrote to me.
FOI Application 2361
I have determined from the documents already available that some of the documents you are requesting access to do not relate to your personal affairs. Accordingly you are required to pay a $32.50 application fee to validate your application... please note that charges are also levied... for time spent by an agency... in searching for or retrieving documents, or making, or doing things related to making a decision on a non-personal application for access -45 for each 15 minutes or part of $15 minutes... I expect a substantial quantum of the matter, while of a personal interest to you, not to be "personal affairs" matter under the act.
I emailed back to explain that I was on a QSuper disability pension and that I could not afford to pay huge FOI fees.
... I am also going to send a complaint to the Ombudsman and the CMC. Would it be quicker and cheaper for me to leave it to them to find the FOI documents?
I was very innocent in those days.
Now I realise that no Queensland Public Servant was going to search and "find" any evidence supportive of me.
My solicitor... also tells me that I should consider making a complaint to the anti-discrimination commissioner. My concern is that waiting to find out why I was put on DWP might take months. (The time-lines for making an ADCQ complaint were running out.)
... Your advice would be appreciated.
On 5 November 2003 EQ FOI coordinator A. S. responded -
... In relation to sending a complaint to the Ombudsman and the CJC, these agencies do have powers to obtain documentation from EQ relevant to investigations they are conducting... As far as I am aware, their services will not cost you anything... It would certainly be cheaper to make a complaint to the ADCQ...
But EQ FOI coordinator A. S. would have known that the ADCQ, the CMC and the Ombudsman would not search for evidence supportive of my complaint. It was going to be up to me to find the documents myself.
On 17 November 2003 I emailed EQ FOI officer V. R. and copied to EQ FOI coordinator A. S.:
I just rang (an officer in the premiers department) and he told me that (I had to pay the FOI fees).
... I am reluctant to pay for the official forms because I don't really expect to find the true story of why I was put on the DWP in them.
... It seems odd to me that you can be put on DWP for a secret reason and then have to pay a kings ransom to find out why.
... How about we put the FOI on hold?
Then, if there is anything that I do not find out after the Ombudsman, the CMC and the anti-discrimination commission write their reports, I can ask for that specific information.
On Wednesday 19 November 2003 EQ FOI officer V. R. emailed:
Thank you for your email received on 17 November 2003 advising that you wish to put your FOI application on hold.
(We will refund your application fee.) This will be forwarded to you early next week along with a letter in relation to your FOI application.
On 25 November 2003 EQ FOI officer V. R. wrote me a letter to explain:
It is not this Department's practice to put FOI applications on hold.
Notice the delay in explaining this to me. It was not explained on 19 November 2003. It was not explained till well after my application had been officially "closed".
... I have, however, decided to retain the documentation relevant to your application for a period of 90 days...
if I have not received a new FOI application... by 28 February, 2004 I shall deem that the documents are no longer required and will be returned to their original locations...
So, on 25 November 2003 the Education Queensland FOI officers knew that I intended to complain to the CMC, Ombudsman and ADCQ about discrimination.
And they had the 2361 FOI application documents.
I now realise that these 2361 documents were "personal" and that they should have been released to me free of charge before the end of November 2003.
But my FOI application was closed down by DEA FOI officer V. R.
By closing down my application - without my knowledge or consent - EQ FOI officer V. R. forced me to start the FOI process all over again.
So I did not receive any FOI documents till after 23 March 2004, six months after I had first applied for them.
Only a few documents were released to me after 23 March 2004.
Several of the 2361 documents have never been released to me, despite many FOI applications.
Some had vanished by 23 March 2004.
Several vanished after that date.
Freedom of Information Application 2421
District Office reports may be secretly written concerning you.
These reports may be secretly placed on your Education Queensland record in breach of Natural justice and the Public Service Regulations.
These District Office Reports seem to "vanish" when you make a Freedom of Information Application.
Many of your other documents also "vanish" during the FOI process. They are described by the FOI officers. Then they vanish.
The original documents described by the FOI officers seem to be replaced with different documents.
On 12 December 2003 I wrote a letter to EQ FOI officers A. S. and V. R.:
FOI Application 2361
... I received a letter from (School Administrator G. R.), dated 29 November 2000. In this letter she stated that I would be on DWP at the start of 2001. In the letter she stated that she was concerned that my classroom practices humiliated students.
(School Administrator G. R.) had never seen me teach. When seven teachers who had seen me teach for periods of up to two years told her that she had misunderstood the situation, that it was the behaviour of the children that was the problem, she told them that the reasons given in the letter were not the real reasons for me being put on DWP. She said that there were "secret, other" reasons why I had to be punished.
Can you find any material that explains why I was put on DWP?
Particularly, can you find any evidence of this "secret, other" reason?
I suspect that there may have been political reasons for me being punished. Can you find any evidence of a political motivation for the punishment?
On 23 March 2004 I received a response from EQ FOI Officer A. S. I did not notice at the time that the number of my FOI application had been changed to 2421.
By 23 March 2004 it would have been obvious to EQ FOI Officer A. S. that some of my documents were missing -
2421 File C (the District Office) documents 28 and 29 were missing.
EQ FOI Officer A. S. did not explain why these documents are missing.
I presume that 2421 C 28 and 29 must be the "lost" District Office Report described in FOI 2875 File J Document 221.
Document 2875 J 221 is a record of what appears to have been a telephone conversation between EQ Head Office Employee M. N and EQ District Office Employee C. H. R. on 27 January 2006:
(Names District Office) report never given to her & was lost?
Need to look - at report.
2421 File F (the school) documents 1-12 were already missing or confused in March 2004.
By October 2005 they had vanished.
On 23 March 2004 EQ FOI Officer A. S. described the 2421 file F documents 1-12 as follows -
2421 F 1 Handwritten note from (me) to (school administrator G. R).
This document has never been released to me. I have no idea what it is.
This document had vanished by 27 October 2005.
2421 F 2 Letter from (school administrator G. R.) to (me) dated 20/11/00.
School Administrator G. R. did put a letter in my pigeon hole on 21/11/2000 that was dated 20/11/00.
While I was on sick leave I had sought advice on how to deal with school administrator G. R. 's behaviour.
I had been advised by the union, specialist teachers and the District office staff welfare officer to ask for a mediated meeting with G. R.
In her letter to me dated 20/11/2000 school administrator G. R. agreed to meet me but made no mention of my request for mediation.
She stated that the meeting will be to discuss her sudden concerns about my "difficulties".
This 2421 F 2 document had vanished by 27 October 2005.
2421 F 3-4,6 Letter from (me) to (school administrator G. R.) dated 21/11/00
I did give (school administrator G. R.) a letter dated 21 November 2000.
This letter stated;
Dear (School Administrator G. R.)
Thank you for the letter that I received this afternoon and for your willingness to attend the meeting that I asked (the school QTU rep) to organise.
You are right in thinking that the breakdown in our relationship... has been affecting my health.
Last week I consulted a union officer who advised me to write to the behaviour Management Committee outlining my concerns with the processing of the yellow slips.
I also consulted two... advisory teachers about the situation and they made some comments and suggestions.
I had consulted my doctor about (an earlier incident when School Administrator G. R. had seemed to behave in an irrational and aggressive manner towards me). Obviously I consulted her last week as well.
I also consulted (the District Office Welfare Officer / psychologist). She suggested that I ask you to have a formal meeting with me in which we both have the opportunity to raise our concerns. She suggested that we have a mediator and I suggested (the school QTU rep). She suggested that I give you time to think through your concerns and that you might bring (School Administrator A. L.) with you if you prefer.
My main concerns are firstly the breakdown in my relationship with you. I need to feel that you support me. I need to feel safe talking to you. And secondly I am concerned about the way that Indonesian (my specialist subject) is valued in the school.
On Monday morning (20 November 2000, the day that I returned from sick leave ) I asked (the school QTU rep) if she would be willing to attend the meeting. She offered to organise it with you. Today (21 November 2000) she told me that you would probably be free on Thursday afternoon. Then I found your letter (changing the reason for the meeting) in my mailbox.
As there are some things in this letter that concern me, I would like to ask (the local QTU organiser) to be present as a mediator. I believe he will be free on Monday afternoon. I will confirm this and then liase with you.
I appreciate your willingness to participate in this process. Hopefully we will come through it with a better relationship and a better (specialist) program for the school.
I have given the full text of the original copy of this letter as the copy of this document filed at 2421 F 3-6 has never been released to me.
I have no way of knowing if the document on my file has been falsified in some way.
And how could this document take up three or four pages in the 2421 File F? The original letter took one page and two lines.
And how could this one or two page letter cover documents 2421 File F 3,4 and 6, with one page missing in the middle?
By 23 March 2004 document 2421 F 5 was missing.
By 27 October 2005 all of these documents 2421 F 3,4,5,6, had vanished.
Freedom of Information Application 3016
14 December 2006 - I wrote to Rachel Hunter, Director-General, Education Queensland.
I told Rachel Hunter that Ken Smith had advised me to write to her and tell her what I wanted.
I said that I wanted her to -
take responsibility for dealing with the systemic bullying, etc. of Queensland teachers.
read my letter to the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commission dated 16 July 2006.
read the list of falsified records that I had found on my Education Queensland files under FOI.
instruct the FOI officers to provide me with the documents that I had been requesting since September 2003.
In particular I requested -
any FOI 2361 documents that had not been released to me to this date for any reason.
any 2421 document that has not been released to me to this date for any reason.
missing documents identified in The Cosser List of mising / falsified /concealed documents.
the documents listed in The Cosser Report 2000-2003 simplified list of missing documents prepared for Matt Woodforth on 11/05/2006.
the documents listed in The Cosser Report 2004 simplified list of missing documents prepared for Matt Woodforth on 11/05/2006.
any document concerning or related to the decision to put me on DWP that has been concealed from me / not released to me from this date.
a copy of any report / investigation / review etc. concerning or related to me that has been concealed from / not released to me to this date.
a copy of any Stage 1or Stage 2 grievance investigation report / or any other report concerning or related to me that was prepared by school administrater E. L.
I requested that the searches be conducted in writing and that I be provided with a copy of these written documents. I made this request because I had found that some FOI officers have not asked for the documents that I have requested, or that the FOI officer's version of the response is very significantly different to the original response. I made it clear that this comment did not relate to the work of Matt Woodforth.
I said that I considered my application to be personal because it concerned bullying by two Departmental officers and mobbing by almost every subsequent Queensland public servant that I had contacted.
Bullying and mobbing are not part of the official duties of a Queensland public servant. They are personal.
... Because I know that my earlier FOI applications will be abused as strategies to refuse / delay this application, probably for several years, I hereby withdraw all of my earlier internal and external FOI applications...
21 December 2006 - Louise Rosemann, Assistant Ombudsman, Assessment and Resolution Team, Queensland Ombudsman discussed my complaint at a meeting with two representatives of the Education Queensland Workforce Standards and Performance Unit.
One of the representatives was Regan Neumann, Unit Director.
Ms Rosemann was advised that,... following an investigation undertaken by Verifact Commercial Investigations, Mr Neumann arranged for a meeting between yourself and Mr Peter Edwards, Assistant Director of the Unit, to review all relevant materials on your EQ files.
(Letter to me from Louise Rosemann, Assistant Ombudsman, dated 16 February 2007)
THIS STATEMENT IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE FACTS.
Peter Edwards only allowed me to see one small file of documents that appeared to be copies of documents that I had found myself under Freedom Of Information.
I had provided a file of such documents to the Verifact Investigator on December 16 2005.
But I had provided the investigator with many other documents.
In my letter to Louise Rosemann dated 16 June 2007 I listed the many other documents that I had provided to the Verifact Investigator.
Ms Rosemann was also told that... Mr Edwards requested that you identify documents that you wanted removed from the files,
THIS STATEMENT IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE FACTS.
THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.
and these documents would then be placed in a sealed envelope and sent to EQ's Legal Section for advice.
THIS STATEMENT IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE FACTS.
I understood Mr Edwards to say that he would "mark" or write something on this file of documents.
I did not agree that this would resolve my complaint.
I am advised that you appeared unhappy with the process and left the building.
THIS STATEMENT IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE FACTS.
MR EDWARDS CALLED TWO SECURITY GUARDS AND HAD ME ESCORTED OUT OF THE BUILDING.
15 January 2007 - Matt Woodforth, Senior Policy Officer, Legal and Administrative Law Branch, Education Queensland, wrote to me.
He sent a receipt for the $36.00 FOI application fee.
16 January 2007 - the next day - Matt Woodforth wrote to me again.
Mr Woodforth refused to deal with my FOI application.
15 February 2007 - I wrote to Rachel Hunter, Director General of the Department of Education and asked her to deal with (what seems to be) the sustained abuse of the Freedom of Information process.
To this date, 4 February 2008, I have not been provided with the FOI documents that explained the "secret reason" why the decision was made to punish me in 2001.
I applied for these documents in September 2003. I have re-stated my application many times since September 2003. These documents are personal. They should have been provided to me free of charge by late November 2003.
The Office of the Information Commissioner also refuse to search for these documents that I first requested in September 2003 and that now seem to have "vanished" during the Freedom of Information process.
... On 1 August 2007, I met with Mr Edwards and discussed this matter. He subsequently advised that EQ had finalised all your FOI matters...
There has been no "recent FOI application" which has "delayed Education Queensland's progress".
Education Queensland's "process" seems to consist of doing nothing whatsoever.
... and that he would now proceed to finalise the task of inspecting and identifying relevant materials on your files and write to you on completion of this task... following your freedom of Information request, EQ is undertaking the physical inspection and identification of relevant materials on your files. I understand that Mr Edwards will write to you again when this task has been completed, and I have requested that this office receives a copy of this correspondence to you in due course.
DURING THE THIRTEEN MONTHS FROM THE DATE THAT THIS STATEMENT WAS MADE TO MS ROSEMANN - 21 DECEMBER 2006 - TO THIS DATE - 4 FEBRUARY 2008 - MR EDWARDS HAS NOT WRITTEN TO ME TO ADVISE ME THAT MY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST OR ANY OTHER "TASK" HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
... EQ is currently responding to your FOI request and intends writing to you about the manner in which your file materials are to be handled.
DURING THE THIRTEEN MONTHS FROM THE DATE THAT THIS STATEMENT WAS MADE TO MS ROSEMANN - 21 DECEMBER 2006 - TO THIS DATE - 4 FEBRUARY 2008 - MR EDWARDS HAS NOT WRITTEN TO ME TO ADVISE ME ABOUT THIS OR ANY OTHER MATTER.
... I suggest that you allow this process to occur.
... I believe you should allow time for this process to continue.
I SUGGEST TO YOU, MS ROSEMANN, THAT NO SUCH PROCESS IS EVER GOING TO OCCUR.
I SUGGEST TO YOU, MS ROSEMANN, THAT EDUCATION QUEENSLAND IS ENGAGED IN A "PROCESS" OF DOING NOTHING WHATSOEVER.
On 19 July 2007, our investigator, Ms Melanie Mundy, made further inquiries with Mr Peter Edwards of EQ's Workforce Standards and performance Unit (WSPU). Mr Edwards confirmed the above actions ( the physical inspection and identification of relevant materials on your files) remained the intent of the WSPU. He noted that EQ's processing of your recent FOI applications had delayed progress on this task.
THIS STATEMENT BY MR PETER EDWARDS IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE FACTS.
On 15 January 2007 Matt Woodforth, Senior Policy Officer, Legal and Administrative Law Branch, Education Queensland, had written to me.
He sent a receipt for the $36.00 FOI application fee.
One day later, on 16 January 2007 Matt Woodforth wrote to me again.
He refused to deal with my FOI application.
There has been no "recent FOI application" that has "delayed Education Queensland's progress".
Education Queensland's "process" seems to consist of doing nothing whatsoever.
... On 1 August 2007, I met with Mr Edwards and discussed this matter. He subsequently advised that EQ had finalised all your FOI matters..
There has been no "recent FOI application" that has been "finalised".
Education Queensland's "finalisation process" seems to consist of doing nothing whatsoever.