Episode 6: A Problem With The Clock

I followed DFAT’s instructions for challenging its decision. When I reached the Information Commissioner, I learned I was seven days late. The deadline had been running before either of the department’s decision letters arrived.

In this episode, I return to LEX13336, the sixty-nine-page release about passport letters to young Australians separated from a parent in Japan, and follow the effort to get more of the record disclosed. Along the way, an invitation to resolve the dispute becomes a request that I ask for less, while information withheld in one document turns up in another. DFAT maintains that nothing more can be released. The documents give me reason to test that claim.

Source documents are freely available on the episode’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/Paper_Sings/posts/episode-6-with-174658978

*Correction: At about 10:34, the IC review deadline should be 9 May 2026, not 9 March.