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Freedom of Information

Behind the scenes of 'The Hit' | Dir. Ema Mulholland

Your rights

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives any person the right to:

  • access copies of documents (except exempt documents) we hold.
  • ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading.
  • seek a review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record, and
  • make a complaint about an agency’s compliance with the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) under the FOI Act.
  • You can ask to see any document that we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents that are exempt. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

Documents available outside the FOI Act

You can get certain information, including personal information we hold about you, without following a formal process under the FOI Act. You should also check the information we have published on the FOI disclosure log to see if what you are seeking is already available.

How to make a request

Your request must:

  • be in writing
  • state that the request is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act
  • provide information about the document(s) to assist us to process your request
  • provide an address for reply.

You can send your request by post to:

FOI Officer
Australian Film, Television and Radio School
PO Box 2286
Strawberry Hills Sydney NSW 2012

By email: foi@aftrs.edu.au

Fees & charges

There is no application fee for an AFTRS FOI request. There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you. However, processing charges may apply to other requests.

The most common charges are:

  • Search and retrieval: the time we spend searching for or retrieving a document
  • $15.00 per hour
  • Decision making: the time we spend in deciding to grant or refuse a request, including examining documents, consulting with other parties, and making deletions
  • First five hours: Nil
  • Subsequent hours: $20 per hour
  • Transcript: preparing a transcript from a sound recording, shorthand or similar medium $4.40 per page of a transcript
  • Photocopy $0.10 per page
  • Inspection: supervision by an agency officer of your inspection of documents or hearing or viewing an audio or visual recording at our premises
  • $6.25 per half hour (or part thereof)
  • Delivery: posting or delivering a copy of a document at your request

Cost of postage or delivery:

If we decide to impose a charge, we will give you a written estimate and the basis of our calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, we may ask you to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, we may ask you to pay a 25% deposit before we process your request.

You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.

What you can expect from us

AFTRS will confirm receipt within 14 days of receiving your request. We will also give you an estimate of any charges that may apply to your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days of receiving your request unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we may need to consult them, which could extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

If you disagree with our decision:

  • When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.
  • You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:
  • if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
  • if we impose a charge
  • if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.
  • A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Internal review

You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of our new decision generally within 30 days of receiving your request.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request or about our compliance with the Information Publication Scheme (IPS) under the FOI Act, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC’s website. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about our actions. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will consult to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.

More information

If you require more information, please contact the FOI Officer on 1300 223 877 or by email at foi@aftrs.edu.au

Certain documents that we have released under the FOI Act can be obtained via the FOI disclosure log.

Disclosure log

The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) is required by section 11C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to publish a disclosure log on its website. The disclosure log lists information which has been released in response to an FOI access request.

This requirement has applied since May, 1 2011.

The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:

  • personal information about any person if publication of that information would be ‘unreasonable’
  • information about the business, commercial, financial or professional affairs of any person if publication of that information would be ‘unreasonable’
  • other information covered by a determination made by the Australian Information Commissioner if publication of that information would be ‘unreasonable’
  • any information if it is not reasonably practicable to publish the information because of the extent of modifications that would need to be made to delete the information listed in the above dot points.

The information described in the disclosure log table below has been released by AFTRS under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and is available for public access.

A link is provided if the information can be downloaded from this website or another website.

Information that is not available online may be obtained by emailing foi@aftrs.edu.au or writing to:

FOI Officer
Australian Film, Television and Radio School
PO Box 2286
Strawberry Hills Sydney NSW 2012

  • A charge may be imposed to reimburse AFTRS for the cost incurred in copying or reproducing the information or sending it to you.
  • There will be no charge for the time spent by AFTRS in processing the FOI request that led to this information being made available.
  • You will be notified if any charge is payable and required to pay the charge before the information is provided.

There may be documents in the disclosure log that are currently not available in HTML format.

If you are unable to read the format provided please contact us for an alternative accessible format.

AFTRS will try to meet all reasonable requests for an alternative format of the document in a timely manner and at the lowest reasonable cost to you.

Information attached to, or referred to, in AFTRS’ disclosure log will generally be removed after 12 months, unless the information has enduring public value.

The FOI Act also requires AFTRS to proactively publish a range of information under the Information Publication Scheme (IPS).

Last updated April 1, 2014

 

Log

FOI REFERENCE NUMBER: FOI 015

Date of Access: 30 April 2021

FOI request:

Access to documents regarding AFTRS’ compliance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014, specifically a) fraud-risk assessment for purposes of s10(a) of the Rule, and b) fraud/compliance audit implemented for purposes of s10(b/d) of the Rule. The option is given to tabulate instances.

Further consultation with the requestor was undertaken for clarification of the request. Documents were released as per that clarification and in tabulated form.

Schedule 1

FOI REFERENCE NUMBER: FOI 013

Date of Access: 9 April 2020

FOI request:

  1. Access to the total cost in engaging Blenheim Partners to recruit a chief executive; and
  2. the total number of candidates put forward by Blenheim Partners for the job during the recruitment.

Information published in the disclosure log:

Schedule 1
Schedule 2

FOI REFERENCE NUMBER: FOI 010

Date of Access: 15 January 2018

FOI request:

A copy of any documents, emails or any other material within the possession or control of AFTRS (including the Board, the Executive, employees and volunteers) that records any discussions concerning why this event was cancelled and why it was not rescheduled.

Information published in the disclosure log:

Schedule 1
Schedule 2
Schedule 3
Schedule 4
Schedule 5

FOI REFERENCE NUMBER: FOI 009

Date of Access: 16 February 2018

FOI request:

Any documentation related to;

  1. The interaction between  [REDACTED] and Student Services regarding the post made by requestor on the AFTRS Noticeboard on Facebook and;
  2. The interaction between [REDACTED] and Student Services for an unknown reason occurring after [REDACTED] saw the post, released the form, the post being removed and the demand for an apology.

Information published in the disclosure log:

Schedule 1

FOI Reference Number: FOI 001/14

Date of Access: March 20, 2014

FOI request:

  1. All correspondence, including email, from Professor Julianne Schultz of AFTRS and the Minister of the Attorney General since September 7, 2013 to present.
  2. All correspondence, including email, from Sandra Levy of AFTRS and the Attorney General since September 7, 2013 to present.
  3. All correspondence, including email, from Ms Sandra Levy CEO of AFTRS and the Attorney General since September 7, 2013 to January 20, 2014.
  4. All correspondence, including email, from Professor Julianne Schultz of AFTRS, Chair of AFTRS Council and the Minister of the Attorney General since September 8, 2013 to January 20, 2014.

Information published in the disclosure log:

Attachment A

  • Schedule 1

Other information:

  • Schedule 1

FOI Reference Number: FOI 001/12

Date of Access:

FOI request:

  1. Both the Statement of Expectation (from the Minister’s office), and the replying Statement of Intent (from AFTRS) for each year from the period of 2004-2005 to the present. Or, if the document does not exist for that year – any equivalent documents that set out directives or expectations from the government to the School, as well as the direct responses from the School to those documents.  I would expect these documents to be part of  a formal annual exchange between the Minister’s Department and the School.
  2. All AFTRS council minutes from the period 2004-2005 to the present.
  3. All documents passed between the government and AFTRS relating to the government funded initiatives in Digital Interactivity and Cross Platform Production and Screen Business skill sets that provided a sum of $9 million over a period of three years from 2004-2005 to 2006-2007.  In addition – and most importantly – all documents related to the process of this funding being made ongoing in the 2007-2008 budget, including any documents that relate to the specific expectations to the intended continuing use of this funding.
  4. In a representation to the ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE – 24/05/2006, then AFTRS CEO Malcolm Long was asked if there were any tests or outcomes to be measured against the additional $9 million in digital funding. He replied, “We have quite sepecific perfromance measures in relation to interest in the programs, the number of people who go through them, tracking ther careers after they have done the programs and following up with other programs, which can build a profile of development over time. ” I would like to see the documents relating to these performance measures from 2005 to the present.

Information published in the disclosure log:

  • Schedule 1
  • Schedule 2
  • Schedule 3
  • Schedule 4

Other information:

  • Schedule 1
  • Schedule 2
  • Schedule 3
  • Schedule 4

Information Publication Scheme

Australian Government agencies which are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982(FOI Act), are required to publish a range of information on their websites as part of an Information Publication Scheme (IPS).

This includes information about an agency’s structure, functions, appointments, annual reports, consultation arrangements, and details of the agency’s FOI officer.  Information routinely released from FOI requests and routinely provided to parliament must also be published online.

The Scheme is intended to form the basis for a more open and transparent culture across government with agencies encouraged to take a proactive approach to publishing the information they hold, and to consider what they should be publishing over and above what they are obliged to publish.

Information Publication Scheme Plan

(PDF)