❓ A parliamentary question regarding the Country Local Government Fund allocation formula and the handling of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The Minister acknowledges errors in the initial FOI search and outlines steps to rectify the issue.
AnsweredQoN 335Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
COUNTRY LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUND — FORMULA FOR ALLOCATION OF FUNDS
Earlier today the minister admitted that he had had discussions with the Western Australian Local Government Association on the development of a formula for the allocation of $400 million by the Country Local Government Fund. (1) Did WALGA make written submissions on the development of the formula? (2) Did the minister consider a range of different formula options? (3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS
Earlier today the minister admitted that he had had discussions with the Western Australian Local Government Association on the development of a formula for the allocation of $400 million by the Country Local Government Fund. (1) Did WALGA make written submissions on the development of the formula? (2) Did the minister consider a range of different formula options? (3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(1) Did WALGA make written submissions on the development of the formula? (2) Did the minister consider a range of different formula options? (3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(2) Did the minister consider a range of different formula options? (3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body;
I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(1) Did WALGA make written submissions on the development of the formula? (2) Did the minister consider a range of different formula options? (3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(2) Did the minister consider a range of different formula options? (3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(3) Were any of these options provided in written form or were any records kept of any meetings to discuss these options? (4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(4) In light of the minister’s admission that the freedom of information search processes in his office were inadequate, will he now instruct his staff to review the claim that his office holds no documents relating to the development of this important formula? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: (1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(1)-(4) I wish to correct the record after the statement I made this morning. I will read from my notes to ensure that I completely address the issue raised by the member. I received an FOI application on 19 January from the member for Armadale under the Freedom of Information Act. It requested all documents relating to and used in the preparation of the formula for the grant allocations for the Country Local Government Fund. My FOI coordinator in my ministerial office carried out an extensive search of documents held within the office. According to my notes, on 21 January my FOI coordinator advised the member for Armadale as follows — Upon examination of your request, I have determined that this office does not hold the requested documents. Therefore, in accordance with section 15 of the FOI Act, I am transferring your application in full to the Department of Local Government and Regional Development for its consideration and response direct to you as soon as possible. This transfer to the department showed up the documents that were presented to the member—I think there were four—from the department of local government. The member specifically asked about the document from WALGA. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : I am asking you whether WALGA made written submissions. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I am coming to that. After the FOI debate this morning and because I was aware of the document, as I had seen it, I asked my staff to find out why that WALGA document was not made available under the FOI process. I asked my staff to carry out another extensive search for such documents. One of my staff located an email in a separate archive folder in Microsoft Outlook. This staff member’s normal inbox only dates back to 7 November 2008. The document to which the member referred was provided to my office in September 2008. That is why that document did not show up on the initial FOI search that the member requested from my office. The email was from Ian Duncan at Western Australian Local Government Association providing a discussion document about the regional local government development fund, which is the document the member is talking about. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : Why didn’t it show up in the departmental records? Did they have the same problem with their inbox? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Having reviewed this document, the staff of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development and the staff in my ministerial office have decided that this document would be exempt from release under Schedule 1, clause 1(1)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act, which states — 1. Cabinet and Executive Council Exemptions (1) Matter is exempt matter if its disclosure would reveal the deliberations or decisions of an Executive body, and, without limiting that general description, matter is exempt matter if it — … (d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body; The mistake that my office made in searching for that document is that it did not show up. I have explained to the Parliament why it did not show up. It was archived in an inbox that went further back in date than the inboxes we are currently working with. I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
(d) was prepared to brief a Minister in relation to matters — (i) prepared for possible submission to an Executive body;
I am now instructing my ministerial office and department to go back through the archived inboxes to the 19 FOI applications that my office has received and ensure that if they find any further information that was not made available at the time of the original FOI application, that that information be made available. The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The issue the member raised in the debate this morning raised the problem in the way my office searched for the FOI document. I am now aware of that problem and, at the member’s request, I will go back to the 19 FOI applications. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : What about the department? Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The department is doing the same. The document in question, a WALGA submission, formed part of cabinet deliberations and it was the decision of the Department of Local Government and Regional Development, as well as the officer in my office, that it would be exempt under the FOI act. The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The member for Armadale said during the debate this morning that when she was a minister she could find documents and she asked why I cannot. The advice my department provided to me is that the member’s office, when she was minister, used a record management system called Hummingbird. This system had the capability to content search, which allowed for all documents to be searched under any key word. On the eve of the election the Department of the Premier and Cabinet changed its record management system to Total Records and Information Management. Currently TRIM does not have the ability to do that sort of content search. I will be talking to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet about how we can improve our system. If TRIM cannot provide the information that Hummingbird did, we will consider the situation. I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
I understand the full responsibility I have under the FOI act. I am happy to provide the information I am required to under that act. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan : You have been sprung twice. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The SPEAKER : Order, member for Armadale! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Today’s debate raised a problem with the way in which my ministerial office deals with these issues. I will correct that and assure the Parliament that in future the processes that we undertake will ensure that those documents can be found. The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
The member for Armadale received 19 FOI applications in the previous financial year in her role as minister. I have received 19 applications in the first six months that this government has been in office. Of those decisions on access, 34 per cent were given full access; 47 per cent were given access to edited copies of documents; and 17 per cent were refused access. My staff now knows that it must comply fully with the FOI act. My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
My commitment to this Parliament is that we will go back through every FOI application and provide any information that did not show up in those email searches.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.