this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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So random question time
When it comes to freedom of information requests, can I still lodge one if I only know what information I want, without knowing if a document containing that specific information exists?
For reasons, I'd like to get a list of the current Ambulance Victoria branches. I'm not entirely sure they'd have one document that neatly outlines each branch they have, so I don't really know if I can go to the ombudsman to request that, if it would involve them digging through other files and collating my requested information into one single file
Ordinarily I'd just ask their FOI office, but unfortunately their FOI office isn't very nice. They've been asked publicly at least twice, and completely ignored both FOIs, and when I emailed to ask for guidance they told me such information can not be released to the public and that's just the way it is, that's why I'll probably go to the big buddy
Yes I know it's weird but..
I don't see why an FOI request wouldn't cover this. The CFA and VicPol both have public pages listing all active stations. And you can pull all the ambo stations from VicEmergency (there's little station icons on there), that's just inconvenient and time consuming, and they're a public agency and FOIs exist for a reason and I'm stubbornYep. It's about the information, not the document. Go for it.
And I am shocked that that info isn't readily available on their website.
Thanks mag. It is a bit bizarre. It's on a map, some of them are on Google, but when it comes to an actual list that's not allowed, for some reason. Oh, and, the ones that have been recently upgraded are listed here
Here's the public requests they ignored, if anybody was curious: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/av_branchstation_locations
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/locations
Granted, those guys seem to have given up, at least in their public pursuit. I, however, am stubborn and have experience in fighting government agencies tooth and nail over minor things. If they ignore my request, I'll just go one level higher until somebody doesn't ignore me, or I run out of levels lol
Edit: also this should be public knowledge imo, so when I get it, I'll publish it everywhere I can
The only thing that occurs to me is protecting privacy of ambo staff ( i.e. you need to know where the cop station is but you don't want randos going to the ambo depot for treatment or because of some perceived slight against one of the staff).
The other realistic reason would be that there's restricted drugs stored at some (most?) of these depots and so, while you need some level of openness about where the depots are, making all those addresses available publicly would probably be perceived as a major risk. Although you can get it now, there's at least a barrier.
Likely there's a bunch of politics wrapped up in this and the lack of comms about why its restricted info is shite but I can see why it might be refused.
I'd say it's probably because of concerns about drugs, which is a fair point and the only reason I'm slightly hesitant about pushing the matter - I most definitely don't want to endanger AV staff or risk yet more ambulances needing to be pulled out of service to be resupplied and sterilised. But at the end of the day, you can still find the locations if you wish, it just takes some searching