International Law

Publication of Treasury's Red Book contributes to public undersatnding

Posted on September 27, 2010
There should be more of it. The release in response to Freedom of Information applications and the initiative taken to publish on the internet Treasury's "Red Book" brief prepared for a returned Labor Government is a commendable start on delivering more open government as promised by Prime Minister Gillard...

NSW busy with announcements on integrity

Posted on September 26, 2010
The NSW Government had a busy week on the integrity and accountability front, with Premier Keneally announcing the introduction of legislation into parliament to amend the Protected Disclosures Act (Download PDF), releasing campaign finance reform proposals (Download PDF), establishing a Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure to see what changes "agreed" in Canberra might be suitable for adoption in NSW, and indicating preparedness to look at the Ombudsman's suggestion of an integrity act for the public service...

Conferences calling

Posted on September 24, 2010
I will be in Brisbane next Monday and Tuesday attending Right to Know Day functions, so look forward to catching up with Queensland readers in attendance. iappANZ?s one-day conference, ?Silver Lining: The Privacy Umbrella of Cloud Computing? will be held in Sydney on 30 November...

Still too much confidentiality in Commonwealth contracts

Posted on September 23, 2010
The annual Australian National Audit Office performance audit to assess the appropriateness of the use and reporting of confidentiality provisions in Australian Government contracts, in accordance with a 2001 Senate Order, highlights some improvements - around 10% of the 42,000 contracts entered into in 2009 contained confidentiality provisions, consistent with experience over the previous three years, and a significant decline from 24 per cent in 2001?02 -but also ongoing problems...

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NSW Information and Privacy Commission

Posted on September 23, 2010
The Legislative Assembly passed the bill on 31 August to integrate Privacy NSW and the Office of Information Commissioner, up to now separate but colocated bodies, into a single agency, the NSW Information and Privacy Commission , and the Legislative Council  followed suit on 21 September...

Devil in the detail in shield laws and the public interest

Posted on September 21, 2010
A renewed attempt to enact a federal shield law for journalists has had a push from Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls and from independent Andrew Wilkie, reported to be planning to introduce legislation when parliament sits next week. What is proposed, as outlined by Chris Merritt in The Australian is a  bill to create a "rebuttable presumption" that confidential sources should remain confidential, based on New Zealand legislation...

E-health pros, and privacy concerns

Posted on September 19, 2010
This article in the Sydney Morning Herald today has a close look at the Government's e-health plans, with $466 million on the table and enthusiastic support from some medical circles as well as privacy advocates' fear of "a stalking horse for another run at a national identity card...

NSW Premier fronts questioning about transparency and integrity

Posted on September 19, 2010
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally faced questioning first up in a Budget Estimates hearing last week about her views on accountability, transparency, integrity and standards raised by Ombudsman Bruce Barbour recently. The Premier said she agreed with the Ombudsman's comments that these values are important to any democracy, and that for democracy to function at its best, its elected members must uphold them as she does in her actions, and as she expects members of the Government to do so...

Data deficits emerge, and a step up for Gov 2.0

Posted on September 16, 2010
Peter Martin in the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the chairman of the Council of Australian Government's Reform Council, appointed to push state governments to improve their hospitals, schools and disability services, says he is in the dark for much of the time and can't get the information he needs...

Queensland "world beater" on whistleblower protection

Posted on September 16, 2010
Dr A.J Brown's summary and analysis of the new Queensland Public Interest Disclosure Act in The Australian describes the protections for taking a public interest disclosure to a journalist as "the simplest, clearest and most liberal provision for public servants to be able to go public with serious concerns about wrongdoing, if official authorities fail to act -- not just in Australia, but anywhere in the world...

Ministers for privacy, FOI and integrity.

Posted on September 15, 2010
The full details of the Gillard Ministry and the Administrative Arrangements Order reveal we have an historic first with Brendan O'Connor appointed Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information. These  functions remain in the Prime Minister's portfolio...

A few cracks in Queensland's "best of breed" law

Posted on September 15, 2010
In an opinion piece in today's Courier Mail, I point out that recent concessions to local government there put something of a dent in Queensland Government claims to lead the nation on open government. Amendments to the Right to Information Act passed in June exempt from disclosure information considered in the course of a local council's budgetary processes, and accord the work of the Brisbane City Council's Establishment and Coordination Committee, consisting of the Lord Mayor and the chairs of other council committees, the same level of cabinet secrecy claimed essential to the operation of government at state and federal level...

NSW disclosure logs so far, a mixed bag

Posted on September 13, 2010
Fair dinkum...Two and a half months after the NSW GIPA act commenced, including a requirement to post on the internet information about a disclosure to a particular applicant of potential interest to the wider community, the log of Premier and Cabinet, Education and Training, Planning, and many other important NSW agencies remain as empty as my wallet...

Spin costs, regardless

Posted on September 13, 2010
activatecricket.com.auWhether spin is government business in Victoria - more correctly, whether ministerial media plans are ministers' documents subject to the Freedom of Information Act - will be resolved by VCAT, but former speaker Ken Coghill is right, in theory at least, that if it isn't, the party not the taxpayer should be paying for this function...

Minister for FOI stands at number 22, integrity scrapes in at 29

Posted on September 12, 2010
The Gillard Government has nailed its flag to the mast of governing differently (and hopefully better), faced with the situation of no guaranteed majority on any vote in the House of Representatives except where the Budget or a vote of no confidence is concerned, and with specific commitments to independent members and The Greens including on how parliament will operate...

Tasmanian Supreme Court delves into competitive disadvantage

Posted on September 09, 2010
It took almost 20 years to surface in the courts and is now somewhat moot as the Freedom of Information Act 1991 has been repealed and replaced by the Right to Information Act from 1 July, but the decision by Justice Porter of the Tasmanian Supreme Court in Forestry Tasmania v Ombudsman [2010] TASSC 39 highlights shortcomings in the FOI act business affairs exemptions...

VCAT to decide if spin is government business

Posted on September 09, 2010
The Age and The Australian both report on evidence given in Victorian and Civil Administration Tribunal proceedings to review the knock back by the Office of the Premier to a request by opposition scrutiny-of-government spokesman David Davis to obtain individual ministerial media plans under the Freedom of Information Act...

Integrity missing in administration of NSW law

Posted on September 09, 2010
The full text isn't on the website (Update: it's here and raises a whole range of important issues that go beyond the SMH report) but this Sydney Morning Herald report of a speech by NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour about ethical and professional lapses in the NSW public sector  draws from Freedom of Information investigations to illustrate lack of transparency, and that too many public servants regard integrity as an old-fashioned, optional concept...

Commissioner reports WA FOI administration generally competent

Posted on September 08, 2010
In a report to Parliament following an 8 month review of the administration of the Freedom of Information Act 1992 by State and local Government agencies, Western Australian Information Commissioner Sven Bluemmel found "that agencies generally administer the FOI process competently" but identified "room for improvement in a number of areas if there is to be a culture throughout government which is consistent with the aims of the FOI Act...

Gillard up for more open, accountable and transparent government

Posted on September 07, 2010
With the support of two of the last three uncommitted independents Prime Minister Gillard has edged over the line and back into office, peppering her set pieces and answers to questions with a theme that led to cheering here. We've come a long way since neither leader thought the subject was worth a mention during the campaign...

Dr Haneef strikes out on FOI access

Posted on September 06, 2010
Two freedom of information decisions, one in the Federal Court, the other by the Queensland Information Commissioner went against Dr Mohamed Haneef recently, adding to the mixed FOI record of attempts to access documents concerning his detention and cancellation of visa in 2007...

Better parliament- guaranteed!

Posted on September 06, 2010
Well let's hope so, no matter who ends up governing, to be revealed later in the day.The Agreement on Parliamentary Reform that the independents led by Rob Oakeshott negotiated with both major parties is a great win for parliament and parliamentarians in a battle for power that parliament has been losing since the emergence of the modern political party with the numbers to govern and an ironclad grip on the House of Representatives...

Blair shows real democrat colours

Posted on September 02, 2010
Martin Rosenbaum on Open Secrets has a great post on Tony Blair's reflections on his introduction of Freedom of Information law to the UK:"You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate...

Second vote for Gillard, three still for grabs

Posted on September 02, 2010
Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie's agreement of support for a Gillard government sees the parties sign up, on the accountability, integrity and parliamentary reform side of the ledger, with everything agreed with The Greens, and one additional commitment, to introduce whistleblower protection legislation and have parliament pass it by 30 June 2011...

Hatton hot to trot

Posted on September 02, 2010
Another ministerial resignation, in NSW, along with a couple of other scandals this week prompted former independent state MP John Hatton, who has a stellar reputation for integrity, to announce yesterday he would stand as a independent candidate for the Legislative Council...

Balancing cabinet confidentiality and other considerations

Posted on September 02, 2010
This Federal Parliamentary Library Background Note on Cabinet confidentiality by Dr Mark Rodrigues covers the origins, history and evolution of the concept, and issues concerning leaks, the courts, parliament's rights of access, and Freedom of Information exemptions...

Integrity, accountability and transparency in the frame

Posted on September 01, 2010
The Labor Party - Greens Agreement "designed to establish a basis for stable and effective government" gets off to a great start, putting transparent and accountable government and improved process and integrity of parliament up there in lights as the first principles that underpin the deal...

What a difference 14 days, and a hung parliament make

Posted on August 31, 2010
This post two weeks ago lamented the fact that governing differently or better hardly rated a mention in the election campaign. Here are extracts from the Prime Minister' address to the National Press Club  (posted by The Australian) today, on how improving democratic practices is now at the forefront of her thinking - although the detail of what she has in mind is yet to be revealed, beyond the independents and cross benchers...

Frank and fearless safe after all

Posted on August 29, 2010
Opposition leader Abbott's concerns about the flow of frank and fearless public service advice as some sort of reason for not co-operating with Treasury to allow a costing of policies for the independents lasted 24 hours before this backflip: about 12 hours longer than the earlier reasons given, that Treasury couldn't be trusted, or wouldn't be able to understand how to go about accurate costings of Opposition policy commitments Abbott's earlier concerns about frank and fearless had the strong support of Shadow Finance spokesman Robb who took it to another level, arguing that the public service briefs prepared before the election warranted state secret status, if a public service 'down tools" was to be avoided:''The red and blue books are fundamental to successful transition to government, and that's another important plank of convention in the way in which our government runs,'' he said...

Abbott, selfessly of course, embraces frank and fearless

Posted on August 26, 2010
TONY ABBOTT: This is very important Lyndal, because you know, our system depends on public servants being able to give free, frank and fearless advice to government and that means the advice has got to remain confidential.And what we've got here is a desperate Prime Minister trashing the Westminster system in an attempt to hold onto power...

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