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International Law

Open and Shut

Issues associated with Freedom of Information (FOI) and privacy legislation in Australia as well as privacy issues generally.

Post Frequency: 11.3/day

Last Entry: May 20, 2013 at 23:00:01

Russia exits in OGP first

Posted on May 20, 2013
Toby McIntosh in Washington reports Russia has withdrawn from the Open Government Partnership. "An official communication that it would drop out was received May 17, although it had signaled its intention several months ago and did not attend the ministerial meeting in London last month, according to OGP-connected sources...

How goes Victorian FOI Commissioner ?

Posted on May 20, 2013
Hard to know almost six months after the Freedom of Information Commissioner opened for business on 1 December. There is nothing on the website about what has happened since in terms of reviews and complaints received and their resolution. The Commissioner has 30 days to conduct a review (super quick by any standard) unless the applicant agrees to an extended period...

No OGP joy in budget, all eyes on EITI in Sydney this week

Posted on May 19, 2013
Nothing in the Portfolio Budget Statements for Attorney General's Department, Office of Australian Information Commissioner or Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade-the three likely suspects - to indicate that Australia will be moving into 2013-2014 with a funded initiative to take us into the Open Government Partnership...

Calling "damage to international relations", with mixed results

Posted on May 19, 2013
Agencies other than Foreign Affairs and Trade get to try their hand from time to time at Section 33 of the Freedom of Information Act and whether disclosure would, or could reasonably be expected to, cause damage to the international relations of the Commonwealth...

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Much ado, to no avail, about the records on "true heir to the throne of Iran."

Posted on May 19, 2013
There is an angle but nothing of significant Freedom of Information interest in this Federal Court decision. However it is hard to go by Justice Gray's first sentence without a peek. The decision runs to 100 paragraphs.To cut to the chase, Ms Fard failed in her application and had costs awarded against her...

Federal Budget: OAIC down about $150k

Posted on May 15, 2013
Could have been worse I guess. As reading a Portfolio Budget Statement has never been my forte, I can only tell you after a little help that buried away in the statement for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner [PDF 176KB] is an allocation of $10...

EFIC's blanket FOI exemptions under challenge

Posted on May 14, 2013
The Productivity Commission in an inquiry in 2012 into the Export Finance and Insurance Commission (EFIC) concluded it should not continue to enjoy a blanket exemption from the Freedom of Information Act in relation to insurance and financial services and national interest transactions...

MEAA on the State of Press Freedom

Posted on May 13, 2013
The State of Press Freedom Report 2013 (pdf) published by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance contains a generally good summary and plenty of opinion from a media perspective on a whole range of relevant issues.(The report is is searchable here with chapters on privacy, suppression orders, anti-terrorism laws, whistleblower protection etc...

Too much tugging over who ministers meet

Posted on May 09, 2013
Queensland is soon to publish lobbying contacts. And Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and his Cabinet Ministers already publicly release information about portfolio related meetings and activities from their diaries. Not as fulsome as some might wish but a far sight better than other Australian jurisdictions...

OAIC on a treadmill

Posted on May 07, 2013
The Office of Australian Information Commissioner continues on a roll publishing a further 18 Freedom of Information review decisions since 28 March, bringing the total to 52 in the year to 26 April as against 35 for the entire year in calendar 2012. Some decisions worth noting in another post, hopefully...

CCTV cameras: Premier dumps on ADT but quick to fix loophole

Posted on May 07, 2013
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell didn't hold back in Parliament yesterday, describing the Administrative Decisions Tribunal decision concerning privacy and CCTV cameras in Nowra as "ridiculous" (four times) and "terrible" (twice). For good measure, "the tribunal was trying to make policy" and should put the interests of the entire community ahead of the interests of the individual who had argued successfully that there had been breaches of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act...

CCTV cameras off limits in Nowra-for the moment at least

Posted on May 05, 2013
Rarely has a NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal decision had the Prime Minister's attention! However the decision that CCTV cameras in the street installed and operated by a local council breached privacy legislation had the Premier, the Prime Minister and the Federal Opposition all rushing to defend the practice and promising a legislative fix if needed to solve any legal problem...

Queensland lobbying rules require public disclosure of contacts

Posted on May 03, 2013
Lobbying rules have proved problematic for the Newman government in Queensland with two ministers resigning during the first 12 months over inappropriate contact and disclosure failings. But Queensland can take a bow when it comes to scope, reporting of lobbying activity and transparency as a result of changes that took effect from 1 May 2013...

Privacy Awareness Week

Posted on May 01, 2013
I'll bet you were aware anyway. If not, Privacy Awareness Week is underway and runs through until 4 May. It's a good idea. In his first outing in this field, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus spoke at the launch event in Sydney on Monday. You won't find much there you didn't know if you followed the painfully slow development and passage of the amendments to the Privacy Act enacted last year and to commence in 2014...

Hawke FOI review report lands in Attorney General's in- tray

Posted on April 30, 2013
The Hawke report on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act and the Australian Information Commissioner Act was due to be handed to Attorney General Dreyfus today and must be tabled in Parliament within 15 sitting days. With Parliament resuming on 14 May the report will be tabled before Parliament rises again for the winter recess at the end of June...

Transparency silos not unique to Australian CSOs

Posted on April 29, 2013
Infrogmation Australia isn't the only place faced with the situation that groups and activists beaver away in civil society silos, separately seeking to advance various transparency and accountability issues without much in the way of dialogue or joint effort on common high order goals...

Integrity awards-parliamentarians step forward

Posted on April 29, 2013
You would like to think they will be inundated with nominations and find it hard to separate winners from a long list of worthy recipients. The Accountability Roundtable is looking for members of Parliament "worthy of recognition for their commitment to honest, transparent and accountable government and the parliamentary system...

Callinan CMC report uses blunderbuss on RTI act when spit and polish might do

Posted on April 28, 2013
The Executive Summary of the Callinan Report on the review of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission, when released a few weeks ago, included what seemed to be an extraordinary, broad recommendation that the Right to Information Act be amended to restrict agencies and the Information Commissioner from being required to give reasons for refusal to release documents for a period of nine months after an application was received...

"Transparency an idea whose time, definitively, has come."

Posted on April 27, 2013
So said co-chair of the Steering Committee, UK Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, in welcoming the eight new members - Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Hungary, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, and Liberia - to the Open Government Partnership in London this week...

Australia and the OGP: seize the day at Sydney EITI Conference?

Posted on April 24, 2013
Sounds as if the meetings of the Open Government Partnership in London this week were likely challenging - Toby McIntosh identified in advance these ticklish issues from a crowded agenda. We're just onlookers of course (did we have anyone working the corridors?) until we take the plunge when the challenges will take on new relevance...

Decade old SA cabinet documents published, in an unexciting first

Posted on April 21, 2013
The South Australian Government has pro-actively published selected 10 year old Cabinet documents. It's a positive policy step on from that taken by former premier and current High Commissioner in London Mike Rann in 2009 to limit application of the cabinet exemption to ten years...

Australian democracy in good shape says Economist IU

Posted on April 18, 2013
Ahh, perspective, perspective. You won't hear much about this from those lamenting that a hung parliament doesn't work, or in media that caters to the 'democracy is dead' crowd. The Democracy Index 2012 (Download here) published by The Economist Intelligence Unit has Australia 6 (New Zealand 5) in ranking democratic practices in 167 countries...

Open Gov convoluted at ABS

Posted on April 17, 2013
The 2011 Census for free on the web sounded great until, as reported by ITNews, a programmer tried to access it and found it so incredibly difficult that the DVD for $250 was looking more attractive. Leading to speculation maybe this is what the ABS intended all along...

OAIC in overdrive

Posted on April 10, 2013
That pick up in pace at the Office of Australian Information Commissioner continues: 34 Freedom of Information review decisions published in 2013 to 28 March, against 35 for the entire year last year. Acting Freedom of Information Commissioner Toni Peroni (who was, is (?) Assistant Secretary Business Law Branch Attorney General's Department) has been the decision maker in many of the recently published decisions...

C U Thursday, maybe?

Posted on April 09, 2013
Look forward to catching up with readers who make it to the Walkley Talks "Press freedom in Australia is under assault" at the State Library this Thursday at 6.30. Free but phone (02) 9273 1414

Sunshine best served straight

Posted on April 06, 2013
It's come a long way since this post seven years ago about Matthew Moore's exposure of excessive secrecy concerning compliance with food hygiene standards, and six years since the first Freedom of Information breakthrough by the Blacktown Advocate leading to release of the names of local offending restaurants...

Queensland CMC report floats drastic RTI change

Posted on April 04, 2013
The Australian The Executive Summary of the report by former High Court judge Ian Callinan on his review of the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission released yesterday is peppered with ascebic observations about CMC performance and seems mostly about winding the organisation in or taking it down quite a few notches...

Responsible journalism, "what's the problem?"

Posted on April 04, 2013
Richard Ackland in the Sydney Morning Herald writes of flaws in whistleblower protection and defamation laws, advocating recognition here of a "responsible journalism" defence of the kind accepted in the UK since the House of Lords 1999 decision in Reynolds v...

NSW GIPA scheme short on performance information

Posted on April 02, 2013
It is hard to get a handle on the state of the game, with the Information Commissioner to step down in a few weeks. The lack of performance information has been noted here previously, as recently as January. Prompted by a report in The Australian at the weekend Commission rules on casino documents on a review by the commissioner of a refusal of access decision by the premier's office that is critical of the original decision and other matters, I went looking for the review report...

The IDC on the OGP a mystery no more

Posted on April 02, 2013
There isn't an interdepartmental committee in Canberra looking into Australian membership of the Open Government Partnership. But there is an"interagency group," a distinction only a public servant, a former one or a Sir Humphrey fan would appreciate...

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