Family Safety Victoria

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) (‘FOI Act’) gives you the right to request access to documents about your personal affairs and the activities of Family Safety Victoria.

Under the FOI Act, you can ask Family Safety Victoria to correct inaccurate, incomplete or out of date information that it holds about you.

Whenever possible Family Safety Victoria will make information available when requested. However, under the FOI Act, Family Safety Victoria can refuse access to information in certain circumstances, such as documents containing information provided in confidence; documents subject to legal professional privilege; or where the document contains information about the personal affairs of another person.

How to make a request

If you wish to make an FOI request to Family Safety Victoria, the FOI Act requires you to:

• submit a written request that clearly specifies the document/s or types of documents you want to access
• pay an application fee or request that the application fee be waived

An FOI request cannot be processed unless both criteria are met. Please include in your request your contact phone number, address or email, so we can contact you and provide you with a decision.

If you are seeking access to documents held by Family Safety Victoria, containing personal affairs information about you, please also provide a copy of your certified photo ID, such as your driver’s licence or passport.

If you are seeking access to documents held by Family Safety Victoria on behalf of someone else (such as a legal representative or advocate), please also provide copies of:

your certified photo ID, such as your driver’s licence or passport
a letter confirming the basis that you are acting on their behalf and authority from the relevant person to release their information

Where to send your request

Your request can be emailed to foi@familysafety.vic.gov.au or posted to:

The Freedom of Information Officer
Family Safety Victoria
GPO Box 4057
Melbourne VIC 3001

Application fee

A statutory fee of $29.60 (as of 1 July 2019) applies for all FOI requests. We accept payment by cheque (by post), made out to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

If you are seeking a waiver of the application fee, please provide evidence that payment would cause you financial hardship, such as a health care card. Please note if you are asking for copies of your own personal documents, the application fee will not apply.

The Act also allows us to charge, where reasonable, for access to documents. We will tell you if this applies and what the charges will be. Access charged will not apply if you are seeking your own personal records.

More information

For more information, visit the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s website(opens in a new window).

Find our Part II Statements.

The Public Interest Disclosures Act 2012 (‘the Act’) encourages and facilitates the process for people to make disclosures about:

• improper conduct (including fraud or corruption) of public officers or public bodies
• detrimental action that a public officer or public body has taken against a person in reprisal for having made a public interest disclosure or cooperated with the investigation of a public interest disclosure.

Public interest disclosures used to be known as ‘protected disclosures’ or ‘whistleblowing’.

The Act provides for confidentiality of the content of public interest disclosures and the identity of people who make them. It also provides other protections for persons who make those disclosures.

Disclosures about Family Safety Victoria or any of its employees and/or officers can be made to a Public Interest Disclosure Coordinator for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. Visit the department's website to find contact details and more information about public interest disclosures.

We can always do better. We will listen to and learn from your feedback about Family Safety Victoria, whether it’s a compliment, complaint, idea or suggestion.

How to submit feedback

If your matter relates to a complaint, please phone 1300 884 706 or read the webpage about Making a complaint.

If your feedback is about The Orange Door, please talk with a staff member at The Orange Door directly.

Please note the above contact details are not monitored for family violence support. We will respond to emails during business hours.

If you need help with family violence support, please visit The Orange Door. If you are in immediate danger, call 000.

What can you provide feedback about?

We want to know if you believe:

• you are satisfied or dissatisfied with the policies, decisions or actions of Family Safety Victoria
• you received satisfactory/unsatisfactory service at The Orange Door
• you require more information or additional help with your choices
• you have concerns relating to respect, dignity or privacy

When handling your feedback, we will:

• listen and treat you with courtesy, respect and dignity
• provide information that is helpful, accurate and easy to understand
• respond to requests within a reasonable time, and
• keep you informed of progress or delays.

You can download an information sheet on providing feedback below:

More information

Need assistance?

Let us know if you need an interpreter or assistive technology to submit your feedback. You can also ask someone to submit feedback on your behalf, however, we will need you to confirm that they have your permission to do so.

Submitting feedback and seeking a resolution can sometimes involve sensitive issues. We will take into account, and be responsive to, any particular needs you may have in providing your feedback. We can also provide assistance and support throughout the process. Contact us about how we can better assist you to submit feedback.

What happens to the information we collect?

We recognise that your personal and health information should only be used or disclosed for the purposes for which we collect it, or for a related purpose that you would reasonably expect.

The investigation of your feedback may involve sharing your personal or health information with relevant areas within Family Safety Victoria, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, or a relevant service provider if they manage the matters identified in your complaint, are involved in the complaint or have a role in overseeing or managing the services provided.

We collect and use personal and health information for monitoring, evaluating and improving our functions, and for meeting statutory requirements. Unless necessary for the purpose of the collection, we will remove any identifying details.

You can view the privacy policies of Family Safety Victoria and The Orange Door(opens in a new window).

Want to remain anonymous?

Family Safety Victoria welcomes anonymous feedback. However, it may not always be practical to investigate your concerns or to provide you with an outcome without your identity or contact details.

Other contacts

You may also wish to take your feedback to one of the following organisations:

• The Disability Services Commissioner assists people with a disability to resolve complaints. Phone: 1800 677 342
• The Health Complaints Commissioner resolves complaints about healthcare and the handling of health information in Victoria. Phone: 1300 582 113.
• The Mental Health Complaints Commissioner can assist if your complaint is about a public mental health service in Victoria. Phone: 1800 246 054.
• The Victorian Ombudsman can investigate complaints about State and local government authorities. Metro: 03 9613 6222 and regional: 1800 806 314.
• The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner will investigate complaints about a failure to comply with the Information Privacy Principles. Phone: 1300 006 842.
• The Victims of Crime Commissioner aims to improve services and systems within government departments, victims service providers and the justice system to meet the needs of victims of crime, including reviewing complaints about services provided to victims of crime. Phone: 1800 819 817.

For information about how you can provide feedback about a family violence service that the former Department of Health and Human Services (now the Department of Health and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing) provides and/or funds go to the department’s ‘Making a complaint’ page(opens in a new window).

What is a subpoena?

A subpoena, also known as a ‘witness summons’ or ‘summons’, is a legal document issued by a court or tribunal at the request of a party to a current case. A subpoena requires a person (or a person on behalf of an entity) to produce documents to the court/tribunal, attend court or the tribunal to give evidence or both. Subpoenas are used in court or tribunal cases to ensure that information relevant to the case is provided to the court/tribunal and the parties.

Who should a subpoena be addressed to?

If the subpoena is for documents relating to clients of The Orange Door, please address the subpoena to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or “The Proper Officer” of Family Safety Victoria, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000.

If the subpoena is for a person to attend court or tribunal to give evidence, it should be addressed to the individual who can provide relevant evidence (e.g. a witness account of events). Please note that workers at The Orange Door are not employed by FSV but Community Service Organisations and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.

Address for service

Please email a copy of the subpoena to the Principal Adviser, Legal, Office of the Chief Executive Officer at foi@familysafety.vic.gov.au.

Hard copies of subpoenas and any cheques can be sent care of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000.

Cheques

Any cheque should be made out to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.

Please consider relevant safety issues

Given that clients of The Orange Door are using the service to seek help for matters relating to family violence, child safety and family wellbeing, it is possible that responding to a subpoena may raise issues and risks to the parties involved and/or workers at The Orange Door. For example, the documents might:

• disclose a victim survivor’s location which is currently unknown to a perpetrator of family violence, or information which could be used to locate them
• include information about a victim survivor’s safety planning, including modifications to their home or belongings which were intended to keep them safe
• contain details about police investigations which, if released, could reasonably be compromised or prejudiced
• include the names and contact details of workers at The Orange Door who have not been involved in direct service delivery and where there is no public interest in their personal information being released.

If safety issues or risks arise out of responding to a subpoena, please consider clarifying the scope of your subpoena to remove information that will create or increase a risk to a person’s safety or welfare.

Clarify scope of subpoena

Family Safety Victoria therefore asks that in formulating the scope of your subpoena, you consider whether the following information is required or whether it can be considered out of scope:

• addresses/contact details (email and telephone numbers) of any affected family member/victim-survivor and/or their children (including current and former addresses and contact details)
• location details of services provided to the affected family member/victim-survivor and/or their children
• safety planning information such as details about any security cameras or equipment that has been installed in a person’s home
• full names and contact details (email and telephone numbers) of any worker at The Orange Door who has not been involved in direct service delivery, and
• the last name and direct contact details (email and telephone numbers) of the worker who has been involved in direct service delivery to the relevant client, where those details are not already known to the client.

If the above information can be considered out of scope, FSV requests that the subpoena clearly states this so that the information can be redacted prior to filing.

If the above information is within the scope of the subpoena, FSV reserves its rights to lodge an objection to the subpoena.

The Orange Door might also need to undertake safety planning with the relevant client or staff member to ensure their safety and welfare is protected following release.

Can FSV refuse to respond to a subpoena?

There are some circumstances in which FSV may not be required to respond to a subpoena. These circumstances include when:

• the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing is not the organisation named in the subpoena
• the subpoena is served after the last date for service specified in the subpoena
• there are no relevant documents in the department's possession, custody or control
• the subpoena has not been sealed (i.e. stamped) by the court or tribunal
• the subpoena requires the provision of conduct money (that means money to deliver the documents to the court or tribunal), but the required money is not provided with the subpoena
• the relevant documents are privileged, or
• the relevant documents are protected by statutory secrecy provisions.

Queries

For queries please contact the Principal Adviser, Legal, Office of the Chief Executive Officer foi@familysafety.vic.gov.au.