70617: Administrative Law - Peak Local Sport Australia - Law Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Students are required to advise a client in relation to an access refusal decision for freedom of information request. 

This assignment will take the form of a letter of advice addressed to the client, Peak Local Sport Australia (PLSA). The letter of advice must address the following points (for guidance on structure and headings see the ‘Format and Submission Requirements’ below). 

a) Assessment of the decision 

Your letter of advice must include an assessment of the decision and the reasons given for the refusal of the request. You need to indicate: 

i) which aspects of the decision are open to challenge, and the reasons which should be used to challenge those aspects of the decision; and 

ii) which aspects of the decision are not open to challenge, and the reasons why that is so. 

b) Merits review options 

Your advice must canvass the options available to your client to seek merits review of the decision. You must: 

i) identify the mechanisms available to review the decision on the merits (if any); 

ii) identify and explain the jurisdiction and statutory power(s) that give any relevant bodies jurisdiction to engage in merits review; and 

iii) provide a recommendation as to how your client ought to proceed (ie indicate (a) if your client should seek to challenge the decision on the merits at all, and (b) if so, the mechanism most likely to achieve your client’s objectives). 

FACT SCENARIO

Peak Local Sport Australia (PLSA) is the peak body for local sports clubs across the country. PLSA’s role is to advocate on behalf of sports clubs; to advise them on questions of budgeting and governance; and to engage with federal and state governments on policy affecting them. Christina Simes is the head of PLSA. For a number of years now, PLSA has engaged in detailed mapping exercises to identify the sports clubs in the most need of funding, whether for new equipment, facilities upgrades or maintenance activities. 

In conversations with friends who work in the sports division of the Federal Department of Health (DOH), Christina has learned that the government is about to start administering an $80 million dollar sports grants fund and that the fund will be based on the Government’s own assessment of clubs’ needs and priorities. She has also heard some troubling rumours that the government may be using the funds to win favour in particular electorates, as there is a federal election on the horizon. 

Christina is concerned that PLSA has not been consulted about the fund. The Minister for Sport and Youth (Minister) has not sent her copies of any policy proposal documents for feedback, which he has always done in the past. Christina has managed to confirm the fund is called Supports for Aussie Sports (SAS). Her ‘source’ in the DOH suggested that PLSA should be ready to move quickly because the Minister is about to announce the funding. Her source also mentioned that the government has already appointed YMPG, an external consulting company, to appraise the design of SAS and ensure it involves an efficient and targeted use of DOH staff and resources. It has sought some preliminary advice from Nellvale, a major national construction company, about the cost of the facilities particular clubs may need. Soon after Christina tells your firm about all of the above, the Minister announces the “exciting new SAS program”, with funding allocations to clubs to be announced in the coming week. 

The following day you put in a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) to the DOH on behalf of PLSA. Your request seeks access to documents created in the past 12 months that refer to: 

(a) arrangements for the introduction of any new Federal Sports Grants Program, including a program entitled Supports for Aussie Sports (SAS); 

(b) any research or data regarding local Australian sports clubs used to inform or design a new Federal Sports Grants program; 

(c) any externally-produced advice or reports, commissioned in relation to a new Federal Sports Grants program; 

(d) internal Government memos, documents or briefings in relation to a new Federal Sports Grants program; and 

(e) any information relating to the overall cost or resourcing of a new Federal Sports Grants program. 

Thirty days later, you receive a response from the DOH (see the letter dated 16 March 2020), in which the DOH indicates that it has located a number of documents relevant to your request, but has refused access to those documents for reasons given. You forward the letter to Christina and now need to prepare a letter of advice, as to how PLSA should proceed (see ‘Assignment Instructions’ above for what must be included in your letter of advice).

This 70617: Law Assignment has been solved by our Law Experts at My Uni Paper. Our Assignment Writing Experts are efficient to provide a fresh solution to this question. We are serving more than 10000+ Students in Australia, UK & US by helping them to score HD in their academics. Our Experts are well trained to follow all marking rubrics & referencing style.

Be it a used or new solution, the quality of the work submitted by our assignment experts remains unhampered. You may continue to expect the same or even better quality with the used and new assignment solution files respectively. There’s one thing to be noticed that you could choose one between the two and acquire an HD either way. You could choose a new assignment solution file to get yourself an exclusive, plagiarism (with free Turnitin file), expert quality assignment or order an old solution file that was considered worthy of the highest distinction.