International Law

Information warrior still turning up hidden gems

Posted on November 12, 2010
Photo:Steve Christo-Roden left. Excuse the segue-but I expect quite a few readers will recall David Roden who did a terrific job as the first and only Director of the Freedom of Information Unit in the Premier's Department 1988-1991. Roden was responsible for getting FOI up, running, and off to a positive start in NSW, before the Unit was disbanded and a long leadership drought at the centre of government, only recently broken, ensued...

Different strokes..

Posted on November 11, 2010
In writing about access issues concerning performance review information earlier in the week, I was bissfully unaware that in Illinois this is a current bone of contention between the state legislature and Governor Pat Quinn. A  bill to exempt personnel evaluations of all government employees from public scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act was passed earlier in the year...

Ministerial advisers unaware of changing times

Posted on November 11, 2010
The Open Government Declaration, and the message about routine disclosure being pushed by Australian Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan may have gone unnoticed to date in ministerial offices. From Crikey today (emphasis added). Refusing to provide details of who works for who is old order nonsense...

500 Freedom of Information applications behind top science journalism award

Posted on November 11, 2010
The only Australian angle on this is that the Walkley Award nominees who know their Freedom of Information law have a lot in common with Charles Duhigg of the New York Times. Duhigg is the winner of the  2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science Kavli Science Journalism large newspaper award for his "Toxic Waters" series, an investigation into the quality of American waters and the enforcement of environmental laws...

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NSW makes a welcome start on political donations

Posted on November 11, 2010
Election campaign finance reform in NSW has moved forward with the passage of the Election Funding and Disclosures Amendment Bill yesterday. Much of the media attention has been on the ban on political donations, agreed at the last minute, placed on the alcohol, tobacco and gaming industries to go with the existing ban on donations from developers, and caps for donations and expenditure...

"We want to be the most open and transparent government in the world"

Posted on November 10, 2010
We've heard quite a few ambitious claims like this, but this time the message is from the UK Government as 10 Downing St launched its Transparency website yesterday. The site includes search facilities to access agency business plans that cover the next four years including data such as financial information, Structural Reform Plans and departmental priorities; find details of who ministers and ministerial advisers are meeting, and hospitality, gifts and overseas travel; who does what in Whitehall and what they're paid; and performance information on efficiency and effectiveness of policies and programs...

Commonwealth Ombudsman brief on FOI.

Posted on November 10, 2010
The Commonwealth Ombudsman's Annual Report 2009-2010 has one page (83) on the 137 complaints received on Freedom of Information matters, a small number in comparison to the total number of 38000. "As with previous years, the majority of (FOI) complaints were about delay, the imposition and remission of fees and charges, and decisions that were not well explained...

Timely external review a problem in the west

Posted on November 10, 2010
The Western Australian Information Commissioner's Annual Report 2009-2010 naturally enough has a lot more on the subject. As previously indicated in his review report   the Commissioner says complaints received in the office are unlikely to be resolved in less than six months, in contrast with the one month timeframe envisaged in the act...

The case of the council manager's performance review-and sundry others.

Posted on November 08, 2010
A number of recent decisions on Freedom of Information issues of direct relevance to local councils, and perhaps of interest to a wider audience are noted in this post.  The NSW  Administrative Decisions Tribunal decisions concern the Freedom of Information Act, repealed and replaced by the Government Information (Public Access) Act from 1 July, but the "tail" of matters before the Tribunal is continuing...

If you're reading this you're interested in Gov 2.0 but you're not from Customs.

Posted on November 07, 2010
Last week's Cebit Australia Gov 2.0 Conference in Canberra was the subject of these reports of proceedings and related interviews. In addition to lots of positive comments about how things are going, the possibilities for the future, and the constant refrain of the need for culture change, were these tidbits of particular interest (emphasis added): IT news- amid all the talk about new tools, Customs says even accessing a site that looks like a blog is out: "Mia Garlick, assistant secretary for digital economy branch DBCDE shared some cautionary tales on the path to open government thus far...

RBA disclosure to one, to all

Posted on November 07, 2010
As Sean Parnell reports in The Australian today ("Public access for breached RBA info vaults", no link), the Reserve Bank appears to be the first Commonwealth agency to introduce a "disclosure log" ahead of the Freedom of Act requirement that commences on 1 May, posting this notice on its website:"In keeping with the intentions of the Act, and the Government's policy objective of enhancing a culture of disclosure across agencies, the Bank's policy generally is to release (via this website) documents provided to applicants in response to FOI applications...

NSW Information Commissioner takes GIPA on the road

Posted on November 05, 2010
NSW Information Commissioner Deirdre O'Donnell and her staff are to be commended for efforts to improve awareness of information rights through a series of roadshow presentations, first in regional centres and more recently in suburban Sydney locations for government employees, NGOs, members of the public and the media...

Australia missing from survey of budget transparency

Posted on November 05, 2010
I had not heard of the International Budget Partnership until I came across references online to the Open Budget Survey 2010. IBP works with civil society and other groups "to make budget systems more transparent and accountable to the public." They believe that "the public has a right to comprehensive, timely, and useful information on how the government manages public funds...

Chief Justice reflects: admin law has come a long way in 40 years

Posted on November 05, 2010
In his Garran Oration 2010, Public Law and the Executive, delivered at the Institute of Public Administration Australia National Conference in Adelaide recently, NSW Chief Justice James Spigelman examined the growth and development of the law in Australia concerning the exercise of executive power...

Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy releases Red book: No 5

Posted on November 04, 2010
This is obviously going to be a long haul. Following a Freedom of Information application The Australian has obtained the incoming government brief from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. The Department is yet to publish the brief.

The Minister and the Commissioner respond to questions

Posted on November 03, 2010
Transcripts of Q and A at Monday's launch of the Office of Australian Information Commissioner involving Minister O'Connor and Commissioner Professor McMillan at a doorstop at Parliament House, and an interview between the Commissioner and iT News both contain useful insights...

NSW whistleblower protections welcome but short of "world beater" class

Posted on November 03, 2010
The Protected Disclosures Amendment (Public Interest Disclosures) Bill passed all stages in the NSW Parliament on 27 October. The legislation implements most recommendations arising from a review undertaken by a parliamentary committee in 2008 that found the whistleblower law, apart from its shortcomings had been orphaned to the extent it was difficult to ascertain how effective it had been, if at all...

Joy to the world and tax lawyers!

Posted on November 01, 2010
Expectations are high. Federal Freedom of Information reforms commence today, as Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information Brendan O'Connor writes (Sweeping away a culture of secrecy) (earlier glitch fixed) in the Sydney Morning Herald, and other Farfax outlets...

Australian Information Commissioner launches forth

Posted on November 01, 2010
Professor John McMillan at the launch of the Office of Australian Information Commissioner:"The OAIC fills a major gap in the system. We will champion open government, provide advice and assistance to the public and promote better information management by government...

House passes shield law

Posted on October 31, 2010
The House of Representatives passed the Wilkie shield law bill to protect journalists' sources ( the Evidence Amendment (Journalists Privilege Bill) last week, the first private members bill to pass, with Government and Opposition members and The Greens Adam Bandt all speaking  in favour...

Climate Change and Energy Efficiency releases Red book:No 4

Posted on October 30, 2010
The Weekend Australian with these two reports has the incoming government brief obtained through a Freedom of Information application- neither the paper nor the Department has published the document so far.

People stuff

Posted on October 29, 2010
Dr James Popple has been appointed  Australia's first Freedom of Information Commissioner. He is, well until Monday, First Assistant Secretary of the Civil Law Division of the Commonwealth Attorney-General?s Department and an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the Australian National University...

Good and welcome news on Federal FOI charges

Posted on October 28, 2010
Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information Brendan O'Connor yesterday announced the Government's fees and charges for the reform regime to commence on 1 November, and covered similar ground and a bit more in this answer to a question in Parliament...

Defence publishes Red book: No 3

Posted on October 28, 2010
Defence, having released the document to two Freedom of Information applicants, has published its incoming government brief. The document, not surprisingly is more heavily redacted than the previously released Treasury and Finance briefs. The Department's Media Release states "Much of this information has previously been made public, including through Senate Estimates, and in preparatory material released for the Afghanistan debate in Parliament...

Queensland Special Purpose Vehicles outside scope of RTI act

Posted on October 27, 2010
In its first decision concerning the Right to Information Act, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal found the Information Commissioner erred in law in deciding that City North Infrastructure Pty Ltd (CNI), a Special Purpose Vehicle established by the government to assist in the delivery of certain infrastructure projects including the Airport Link, was a public authority and subject to the RTI act...

Wikileaks, continued

Posted on October 26, 2010
I don't think I can say anything different than last time, when Afghanistan, not Iraq was in the frame:"This is a whistleblow outside any legal framework, and raises the issue of criminal liability for whoever was involved....In the court of public opinion we will hear a lot about the public interest and the right to know generally the details of a war involving loss of life and billions of dollars, about what is happening on the ground...

Walkley Awards finalists know their FOI

Posted on October 26, 2010
Journalists who know a thing or two about Freedom of Information (correction they all do these days) feature in the finalists for this year's Walkley awards. Linton Besser of the Sydney Morning Herald is a finalist in two categories: Investigative Journalism for ?The wrong stuff? about Defence contracting, and Print News Report, with Sean Nicholls and Nick O'Malley, for ?Freebies for Labor minister? about then NSW cabinet minister Ian Macdonald's failure to declare $30000 in airline upgrades...

How Finance decided to publish the red book

Posted on October 25, 2010
The concerns of journalists about the potential effect of disclosure logs on their FOI exclusives from May next year were no doubt heightened, for those who made Freedom of Information applications including Sean Parnell at least, by the decisions by Treasury and Finance to publish on the internet their incoming government briefs...

Reflections on 2000 posts

Posted on October 25, 2010
Not that I've been counting, but Blogger has, and tells me that we have just passed this milestone. A bit over 400 posts a year since we started on 3 February 2006. I was pushed in this direction at the time by Susan Timmins, and Nicolette Davey working here while undertaking journalism studies at UTS, who both suggested a blog to replace an occasional  client newsletter that had been around for years beforehand...

Summary of FOI reforms

Posted on October 25, 2010
At the request of Toby McIntosh I provided this summary of the 1 November changes to the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act and related Australian developments for freedominfo.org, the global network of freedom of information advocates. The new page on the sidebar lists and links to Australia's information access laws as they stand at present,  something put together for the purpose of that article...

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