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Peetwo
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#502

07-05-2017, 09:49 PM

Harfwit QON of interest - Rolleyes

From the Budget Estimates QON released today (PDF 661KB):

Quote:103
000246
AA
XENOPHON
PUBLICATION OF FOI DOCUMENTS ON WEBSITE

Senator XENOPHON: I just want to go to the question of the publication of documents on your website. If you had documents that have been released under FOI, there is a protocol that you are required by law to publish them on your website; is that right?

Mr Harfield: I am unfamiliar with that, but it is supposed to be that, once you have published them, they should be available to everyone.

Senator XENOPHON: Isn't there a legal requirement? Maybe, when Senator Rice is asking some questions, I will do a quick bit of research to find the relevant section if there is.

Mr Harfield: If there is, we need to comply.

Senator XENOPHON: The stories that were published by the ABC on the accelerate program, back in February of this year—they do not appear to be online, as I understand they are required to be.

Mr Harfield: I will check that, because there should be no reason that they are not.

Senator XENOPHON: Let us go back a step, though. Is there a protocol to ensure that documents that have been released under FOI are on your website?

Mr Harfield: There should be a protocol that we should be publishing them as per the FOI legislation.

Senator XENOPHON: And who can tell me what that protocol is? Is anyone here—

Mr Harfield: I do not have the FOI protocol in front of me.

Senator XENOPHON: Could you provide an explanation as to why the documents that were released under FOI that the ABC obtained for their stories earlier this year do not appear to be on the website? If they are on the website and I have not been able to find them, I apologise, but they do not appear to be on the website.

Mr Harfield: We will find them, and we will give you an explanation of that.

Well we all know about that QON don't we Wink

: Harfwit's FOI disclosure log update.

Next another QON on match fit Harfwit's accelerate me program:

Quote:104
000247
AA
XENOPHON
COMPLAINTS - ACCELERATE

Senator XENOPHON: Have there been many complaints about the Accelerate Program? Is there a complaints mechanism or is there a hotline to ring? Usually people complain to their immediate superiors about an issue with the Accelerate Program. How do you know how many complaints there have been about the Accelerate Program? If it stops at the supervisor level, you may not know about it. How can we be assured that it is filtering up to the upper echelons of Airservices?

Mr Harfield: Because there are a range of mechanisms that can be used. It is well known within the organisation that, if you report something to your supervisor and you do not get the resolution that you require, then you have the ability to go above that person. You have also got the fact that we have an ethics hotline. It can be done anonymously. We have also got what we call a confidential word, where you can put in something confidential that goes straight to the executive level, to report it. There are a range of mechanisms so that, if there is a case where someone feels that the supervisor, for example, is not reporting it, there is a mechanism—

Senator XENOPHON: In terms of those various mechanisms that you have described, could you give details, on notice, about how many complaints to those various hotlines and mechanisms there have been, say in the last two to three years? Do you do the reporting on a financial or calendar year basis?

Mr Harfield: Yes, we can report on how many reports we got through those mechanisms.

Senator XENOPHON: And in the last, say, three years whether there has been an increase since the Accelerate Program. That might be useful.

Mr Harfield: Just so I can clarify what you are looking for: you just want to see whether there has been an increase in those areas at the time of the Accelerate Program?

Senator XENOPHON: Yes, insofar as you have a number of reporting mechanisms—the ones that you have described and if there are any others—what the numbers have been, say going back from three years ago.

Mr Harfield: Coming through that period, absolutely.

Senator XENOPHON: Going back to 2014-15, 2015-16 and this year.

Mr Harfield: We will take it back to 2014.