International Law

Australian Information Commissioner prepared for action

Posted on October 24, 2010
More from Australian Information Commissioner Designate Professor John McMillan in this report today by Sean Parnell in The Australian- a surge of Freedom of Information access applications are expected when the Commonwealth reforms commence on 1 November ( abolition of the application fee will no doubt be a contributing factor for those that know about it, but still no sign of the regulation with details of the new charge regime); the level of preparedness among agencies is mixed, with the larger agencies in particular well prepared; and his office expects to be hit with numerous review applications from the middle of next month...

NZ red books published; red faces anyone?

Posted on October 23, 2010
Anonymous, without even trying to rub any local noses in claims about our open government practices, has brought to attention the New Zealand Government webpage containing the set of briefings for incoming ministers published in December 2008. There might be a difference in content-the briefing released publicly for the Prime Minister is straight down the line about the department with little about issues that need to be addressed, although the couple of others that I looked at contain more along these lines- but Anonymous has made the point without the slightest hint of the hype that sometimes crops up in making trans tasman comparisons...

Earth moves:Treasury releases legal advice

Posted on October 23, 2010
Hard to tell if this is a sign of new times or an example based on an unknown formula for selective disclosure, but in any event the release by Treasury in response to a Freedom of Information application of legal advice from the Australian Government Solicitor is a rare event...

Red book questions, FOI answers

Posted on October 22, 2010
 During Senate Estimates hearings on Monday (Finance and Public Administration), Opposition Senator Cormann asked officers from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (F&PA 38) about Freedom of Information requests received for the incoming government brief...

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NSW Ombudsman wraps up on FOI

Posted on October 21, 2010
The 2009-2010 NSW Ombudsman Annual Report  marks the end of an era as the Ombudsman's long standing role in dealing with freedom of information (FOI) complaints and reviews passed to the Information Commissioner from 1 July with establishment of that office and the commencement of the GIPA Act...

Federal FOI changes to transform government

Posted on October 21, 2010
With important Federal Freedom of Information Act reforms to commence on 1 November, Australian Information Commissioner Designate Professor John McMillan has been talking to the Sydney Morning Herald's Matthew Moore. Worth noting:Professor McMillan predicted the changes would ''transform government'' as departments realised old rules were gone and there was a new emphasis on ''pro-disclosure...

Electronic security failings raise privacy issues as well

Posted on October 21, 2010
The NSW Auditor General report Electronic Information Security is focussed on the failure of the NSW Government to ensure agency compliance with the international Information Security Management System standard, despite directions/ exhortations to agencies to do so...

Shield law, whistleblowers and secrecy provisions all part of the framework

Posted on October 20, 2010
In introducing the Evidence Amendment (Journalists' Privilege) Bill, Andrew Wilkie recounted the experiences of some high profile whistleblowers and the journalists who publicised their concerns, and acknowledged that the logical counterpart to the bill will be whistleblower legislation, adding that he looked forward to "working with members in this place to progress such unprecedented federal legislation during the term of this parliament...

Shield laws, and the fine print

Posted on October 20, 2010
Independent Andrew Wilkie introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday his bill to shield journalists sources from disclosure, welcomed by Australia's Right to Know and presumably others in the media. Opposition Shadow Attorney General Senator Brandis  had beaten him to the punch, to less apparent acclaim...

Can't keep Aussie down for long

Posted on October 19, 2010
There we were languishing down the order for a moment, with NZ at the top of the FOI tree. Next thing you know it's congratulations to Senator Kate Lundy who received the Politics Online International eDemocracy award for People Changing the World of Internet and Politics in Paris last week, honouring her Public Sphere consultation initiatives, and support and advocacy for Gov 2...

KIwis trumps in this international FOI performance study

Posted on October 18, 2010
In Government Information Quarterly 27 (2010) 352?359, available on a pay for view basis), Robert Hazell and Ben Worthy of the Constitution Unit University College London discuss performance measures for FOI regimes in reaching the conclusion the UK act has performed reasonably well in the first four years of operation...

FOI a bargain in the spin equation

Posted on October 18, 2010
Allen and Unwin 2007 Peter Rolfe and Simon Kearney in the Herald Sun estimate at least 3000 media advisers are employed by  federal and state governments at a salary cost of $250 million, with the Victorian Government at the top of the bill, and around $50 million a year spent by federal departments...

Christmas is coming

Posted on October 18, 2010
So too, apparently around the same time, the report on Federal parliamentary entitlements. By then the Government will have had it for eight months. Katharine Murphy writing in The Age gives Minister Gray's ministry for the public service and integrity the title "Ministry of mess", and that's without even mentioning half the things for which he is responsible...

Substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources

Posted on October 15, 2010
Justice Emerton of the Supreme Court in Chief Commissioner of Police v McIntosh [2010] VSC 429  found the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal erred in law in interpreting  s 25A of the Freedom of Information Act, a provision that permits an agency to refuse access to documents if satisfied the work involved in processing a request "would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the agency from its other operations...

Tasmania's pro active publication falling short

Posted on October 14, 2010
As pointed out previously, the Tasmanian Right to Know Act provisions concerning proactive publication of information don't take things very far, and the powers conferred on the Ombudsman to require more seem unclear. Apart from information required to be made publicly available by another act or regulation (a required disclosure) whatever else is published essentially seems to be up to each agency...

Privacy reform won't be rushed

Posted on October 14, 2010
In his role as Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information, Brendan O'Connor spoke at the Australian Institute of Credit Management National Conference yesterday, primarily on issues of credit reporting reform. On privacy generally, he outlined a series of steps to bring draft legislation before a Senate Committee in parts, culminating in a draft Bill for Parliament in the second half of 2011, and for the laws to be passed sometime near the middle of 2012...

Australian Information Commissioner: drum roll please

Posted on October 12, 2010
The Office of Australian Information Commissioner website is up and running today, with that office, including the integrated Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and the Freedom of Information legislative reforms (other than the publication scheme requirements) to commence from 1 November...

Victoria not for turning, yet, on FOI reform

Posted on October 11, 2010
Melissa Fyffe in The Age provides a run down on transparency issues as Victoria moves into election mode, with Attorney General Hulls defending the record on executive privilege claims and blaming the Opposition for voting down Freedom of Information reforms in Parliament...

The retiring Mr Mathews speaks up for speaking up

Posted on October 10, 2010
On the other hand in his valedictory speech last week, long time Commonwealth public servant Ken Mathews expressed pride in the Australian model of public administration, suggesting Ozminster rather than Westminster as the more apt description, and in the Australian Public Service "as a great, continuing national institution...

The retired but not retiring Mr Gleeson

Posted on October 10, 2010
Gerry Gleeson, one time head of the Premier's Department, holder of many other high public and private sector offices, and still highly influential, gave the NSW Government and the state public service both barrels in his Spann Oration and in a follow on interview on ABC Stateline on Friday...

ASIC FOI law epic

Posted on October 10, 2010
The decision by Deputy President Forgie of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Mathews and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (and ors) [2010] AATA 649 involved a Commonwealth Freedom of Information application submitted seven years ago, was handed down 19 months after the matter was heard in January 2009, runs to 486 paragraphs and includes 402 footnotes...

Queensland pioneering on open government measurement

Posted on October 08, 2010
The Queensland Information Commissioner's 2009-2010 Annual Report covers the first year of the operation of the Right to Information and Information Privacy acts. The Office has set a high standard in reporting against its targets, and has a good story to tell...

Masterly argument blocks release of school value add

Posted on October 06, 2010
The NSW Department of Education rejected an application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act for access by the Sydney Morning Herald to information on the value added by the state's comprehensive schools to their students' performance between year 10 and year 12...

Privacy surfaces, Demi settles

Posted on October 05, 2010
Demi Moore settled with New Idea publisher Pacific Magazines her Australian action claiming breach of copyright and breach of confidence over publication of photos taken at a private party in Los Angeles, prompting Ben Hills in The Age and Tim Dick, Media Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald to reflect on the state of the law regarding a cause of action for breach of privacy...

Finance calls for action on parliamentary entitlements reform

Posted on October 04, 2010
The Finance Red book briefs also contain material on parliamentary entitlements, the need for action on the  report of a review that former Special Minister Ludwig sat on since receiving it in April, and to sort out what is to be done on the related issue of government agreement to establish the position of parliamentary integrity commmisioner with a role to report on such matters...

Finance Red book advice for Gray on open government

Posted on October 04, 2010
In another welcome development the Department of Finance and Deregulation has added new information and opinion to public discussion and debate on a range of important issues including fiscal, budget and government efficiency challenges, in publishing the incoming Government Briefs provided to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, and the Special Minister of State...

Privacy and the dead

Posted on October 01, 2010
The latest iappANZ Member Bulletin, edited by Nicole Stephensen, includes an article by me on that lively topic. I was prompted to have a look at the issue in Australia by "Keeping the secrets of the dead" in Legal Studies 2010 (The Society of Legal Scholars, Blackwell Publishing, no link available) by Mary Donnelly and Maeve McDonagh of University College Cork in which they examine the situation in England and Wales...

A cabinet minister at the table does not a cabinet committee make.

Posted on October 01, 2010
Dennis Shanahan in The Australian says new committees announced this week by the Gillard government to revisit a minerals tax and carbon tax "are built on the failed foundations of Labor's first-term attempts," and that the latter, linked to cabinet by minister Combet is guaranteed secrecy and "protection from Freedom of Information requests...

"Unnecessary debate" still running, fast trains aren't

Posted on September 30, 2010
Michael McKinnon of the 7 Network told the Right to Know Day Conference in Brisbane on Tuesday that he had applied immediately under the Freedom of Information Act to the Department of Transport for documents concerning the proposal for a high speed train when it was raised during the election campaign, only to be told then, as reported this week in Fairfax papers, that disclosure was contrary to the public interest because it was an ''incomplete picture unlikely to make a valuable contribution to public debate...

Slipping into Deputy Speaker's chair

Posted on September 30, 2010
Plenty of media coverage in the last few days about the election of the Liberal Party's Peter Slipper as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives but it seems Bill Hoffman at the Gold Coast Bulletin is the only one writing about the ongoing investigation into Mr Slipper?s claims for parliamentary entitlements, and any possible link between the two...

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