Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

Hello

I will be making this request of all major government departments. I am starting with five in the first instance so that their answers will help me to refine my questions going forward.

I am seeking information for the last five years about government activity that relates to climate change. I am wanting to find out for each year:

Air Travel

(please do domestic and international air travel separately)

A). How many of your staff has travelled by air (obviously with all of these I mean where the agency has paid for it) and how many the total flights were and how much it cost all up.

B). What was the purpose and benefit to the taxpayer of each trip

C). For each trip why was a remote alternative not used? Like for conferences a lot of them have remote viewing dial ins so you don’t have to travel to attend. Meetings can usually be done by conference call or skype. Things like that. So there are very few situations where staff would actually have to travel by air. So in cases where you have could you explain if there was no remote alternative available? And if there was why was it not used?

D). When staff are travelling there are extra expenses too. How much has been spent on accommodation and for how many people and nights in these times too?

E). As per D but how much on other expenses like meals and allowances?

F). Do staff of different jobs/ranks/levels get different types or levels of accommodation. If so can you explain why?

G). Going into the future do you have plans to reduce air travel? If you do could you explain these plans and if you have set any targets for it and things

Packaging and Recycling

A). Do you have recycling facilities in all of your premises? If you do not please explain why

B). Do you actively encourage or make your staff recycle? If you do please explain how

C). Do you have rules aimed at encouraging other staff environmentally friendly behaviour such as banning staff from bringing disposable cups onto the premises?

D). If you have cafes or similar things in your premises do you require them to use environmentally healthy options such a re usable cutlery and recyclable packaging?

Encouraging Good Behaviour and Attunement with the natural world

A). Do all of your offices have plants? If so, what is the ratio of plants to workers? Do you ensure that providers that look after the plants use sustainable and environmentally friendly options in their practices (for example pesticide choices)?

B). Do you have programmes for encouraging your staff to make more environmentally friendly choices outside of work?

C). Do you encourage your staff to be more interconnected with the natural world by hosting or promoting practices such as mindfulness, meditation, earthing or Tai Chi?

E). Do you take any steps to increase staff knowledge and awareness of environmental issues in general?

Yours faithfully,

Jeremy Puger

Dear Michelle,

I thank you for replying and would be happy to discuss my request with you. Your response asks me to email you at a specific email address. But in place of an email address it shows "[email address]". This is hyperlinked but goes to a null page. I would surmise that FYI must automatically redact email addresses.
If I were to post my email address I expect the same would occur. This creates an impasse in our communication.
It would be better in the interests of transparency for your queries about my request to be posted here that we may resolve them in public view. If that is not to your taste I am open to the private communications that you request but you will need to tell me how we can overcome the email redaction impasse.

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Puger

Dear OIA,

Thank you. I am confused by the level of costs associated with some of the one or two person trips. Please provide further explanation as to the activities, and as to the composition and reason for the costs in the following:

The Counsel Assisting's trip to afghanisatn that cost over $25k,
The DCE trip to Singapore to speack at the DGX which shows as costing over $25k, but the text states that this is the cost of canceling the airfares?,
The trip of the DCE, chief privacy officer, principal advisor and a director to israel for the D7 that cost over $55k for four people
A director and policy analyst going to france for a finance task force plenary at over $21k
An external consultant going to france for a workshop at over $8k. As well as my above questions please explain why you paid this for an external party and didn't send one of your own people instead
An external consultant travelling to the UK for a childd abuse inquiry. The text specifically states that the whopping $21k bill is a reimbursement of airfares. Surely that whole amount can't be airfares?
Four people to the UK at over $55k with an explanation of "We gained useful insight and information that will assist us in the context of our inquiry". The other text just says there were exploratory meetings with experts. Nothing actually tells us what this trip was about. 
Four people goping to germany for over $69k with the only explanation being "participation in proof of concept for production machine-readable travel documents". This very limited explanation does not tell us anything that gives an inkling as to why it cost so much

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Puger