International Law

Focus on information not documents a NSW step in the right direction

Posted on February 11, 2010
www.archives-doc.comOne of the positive aspects of the NSW Government Information (Public Access ) Act (yet to commence) is that it moves into the modern world by providing a right of access to information. It's a significant move away from the Freedom of Information Act 1989 focus on "documents", evoking as that term does, images of piles of paper, manila folders, and large repositories to store them (not that all these aren't still important in the accountability context...

Further Senate Committee hearing on FOI Reform Monday

Posted on February 11, 2010
The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee is back to the Freedom of Information Reform Bills on Monday with a hearing in Melbourne, and a broad range of witnesses speaking to their submissions including academics Johan Lidberg and Moira Patterson, yours truly, the Australian Law Reform Commission, Australian Press Council, Victorian Privacy Commissioner, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Liberty Victoria...

Glad to hear here, anytime

Posted on February 10, 2010
The Age"The government wants to blog" is the headline to Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner's piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, today, something a bit different from other headlines of barbs  exchanged with Barnaby Joyce et al. The Minister tells readers about the thrust of the Gov 2...

Yes Minister: political interference in Freedom of Information decisions

Posted on February 10, 2010
From The Canadian Press:"Last summer, Sebastien Togneri (a top political aide to the Minister) issued a terse email to officials in the Public Works Department telling them to "unrelease" a report on the government's real-estate portfolio when he learned it was being sent uncensored to The Canadian Press...

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FOI law protects confidential complainants

Posted on February 09, 2010
December and January saw quite a few Freedom of Information decisions around the country, and I'm behind in mentioning some of interest.Two NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal cases illustrate that the identity of complainants or those who provide similar confidential information about an individual is well protected by exemptions in the NSW Freedom of Information Act...

Kirby set for privacy champion award

Posted on February 09, 2010
Speaking of honours, nice to see that former Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby AC is to receive the 2010 International Privacy Champion award from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).The award recognises his work, at the time President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, to develop the OECD international privacy guidelines that have provided the basis for laws, agreements and frameworks around the world since 1980.

Orders of Australia beyond question?

Posted on February 09, 2010
During  Estimates hearings of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee  on Monday (08/02/2010), The Greens Senator Bob Brown raised with the Governor General's Official Secretary (F&PA 44-46), the issue of unsuccessful nominations for honours (446 of 738 nominees or 60% were successful this year) that led to discussion about the Council for the Order of Australia, how it operates, the fact that there is no review of decisions process, and no access to information about how decisions are made...

FOI review rights and who carries the can

Posted on February 08, 2010
The issue in the Federal Government's  Freedom of Information Reform Bill that Australia's Right to Know ran strongly with last week and was picked up elsewhere by the media and in the Senate committee hearing on Friday, revolves around the right to seek merits review from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and who should carry the onus if the matter gets that far...

Privacy, the media and Terry's own goal

Posted on February 08, 2010
Michael Pelly in The Australian Legal Affairs on Friday took some comfort from England soccer (now former) captain John Terry's failure in court to stop publication of an affair with a team mate's ex, suggesting the decision of High Court Justice Tugendhat would have Australian media lawyers smiling...

New FOI era in NSW still coming "in the near future"

Posted on February 07, 2010
You might say that publicly at least, all that reforming zeal about ending secrecy in NSW associated with former Premier Nathan Rees, may have gone out the door with him, as there has been no mention of this aspect of public administration from new Premier Keneally, other than an early comment she was keen to restore trust in government...

All in the interests of informed public discussion and debate

Posted on February 07, 2010
 Federal Minister Penny Wong had no problem last week releasing a copy of New Department of Climate Change analysis of the Opposition climate change policy, in a succinct two pages, and drawing attention in a media release to the fact the policy would increase emissions by 13%...

SA backflip on online political discussion

Posted on February 07, 2010
After posting here in defence of anonymity and pseudonimity, used reasonably, in online political discussion, I missed the ensuing fuss last week over the South Australian law to try to haul this in during the pre-election period, only to read in the Weekend Australian of the complete government backflip, under pressure, and some other colourful aspects of the public life of the minister responsible, Attorney General Michael Atkinson...

Senate Committee to inquire further into FOI Reform

Posted on February 06, 2010
The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee has another hearing on the Freedom of Information Reform Bills scheduled for Melbourne on 15 February, according to the list of upcoming hearings.Media coverage of the hearings last Friday included Markus Mannheim in the Canberra Times "Media says FOI overhaul falls short", and ABC News "Media urge FOI reform", both highlighting points made by Michael McKinnon about narrowing the Cabinet exemption, and Nicola Berkovic in the Weekend Australian, "Action urged on FOI flaws", on exemptions and the issue of onus in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal...

Senate Committee does FOI Reform before lunch

Posted on February 04, 2010
Following right along the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee wrapped things up at 12.25 pm, but the widely experienced administrative lawyer Sydney barrister Mark Robinson, appearing for the Law Council of Australia, managed to raise additional issues for Committee attention including reformulation of exemptions so that a modified public interest test would apply to trade secrets and commercially valuable information, and to information claimed to be received on a confidential basis...

Senate Committee speeding through FOI Reform Bills

Posted on February 04, 2010
I'm having one of those moments they say you experience when you see sausages or legislation in the making.Things moved along so smartly at the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee hearing on the Freedom of Information Reform Bills, this morning that proceedings  adjourned for an hour at 10:30...

Senate Committee digs deep

Posted on February 04, 2010
The  Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee found a couple of micro details in the Freedom of Information Reform Bills worthy of Government reconsideration- may the Finance and Public Administration Committee that meets tomorrow show similar diligence...

FOI: Cat on ladder with a key

Posted on February 03, 2010
It will take a long time for the Opposition to live down its record on the transparency front while in government, but it doesn't mean criticisms aren't worth noting. And some metaphors aren't bad either. Here's the Liberal Member for Paterson, and Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel Bob Baldwin in the House yesterday during debate on Appropriations Bills: "It is now beyond any doubt that this Labor government has no ability to deliver on any of its intentions, promises or policies...

Major parties prefer status quo on Senate powers

Posted on February 03, 2010
The titles of these two postsSenate looking to muscle up on refusal to answer, last November, andSenate powers to access documents one of the issues for 2010, in the last few weeks indicate what I was expecting to come out of the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee's inquiry into Independent Arbitration of Public Interest Immunity Claims...

Round in circles

Posted on February 03, 2010
The Crikey article by Margaret Simons referred to in her comment on the previous post, about the proposed  shift in onus in AAT reviews, including my comment on hers is here-if you get what I mean.

Senate Committee given food for thought on FOI Reform

Posted on February 02, 2010
There was a late rush to meet the deadline - the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee has published 26 submissions received on the Freedom of Information Reform Bills. All welcome the reforms, with plenty of "buts", and many again reiterate points made but dismissed with no explanation during the Exposure Draft consultation phase last year...

We're Four!

Posted on February 02, 2010
Just seems like yesterday ....but it's 4 years tomorrow since we started here. 419 posts in our first year, then 334, 428 and 440 last year. We were pleased when we got to several hundred hits a week, but now are regularly around the thousand mark, plus unknown numbers of RSS subscribers, so thanks for your interest...

A case for automatic and routine disclosure

Posted on February 01, 2010
We can all make mistakes, but would former politicians be a bit more careful with their gold pass expenditure if they knew the details would be automatically and routinely published? Now when wrong claims come to light in response to a Freedom of Information application by the Herald Sun, the Treasurer criticises the misuse of the scheme, describes the behaviour of the former MPs who improperly used the pass as "completely reprehensible" and suggests the perk could go...

SA applies old rules about election comment to new media

Posted on February 01, 2010
Amendments to the  South Australian Electoral Act that create an offence for publishing commentary on election issues on the internet as well as in a newspaper or magazine, or in a radio or television broadcast, without the name and address of a person who takes responsibility for the publication of the material, came into force on 6 January...

Opposition holds out on political donations

Posted on February 01, 2010
I can't do better than Stephen Mayne in Crikey today on the annual release by the Australian Electoral Commission of donations to political parties. It's pretty much the same old ugly story, but a tick for Labor for voluntarily disclosing donations over $1000, while the the Opposition which is blocking the change in the Senate sticks to the letter of the law and anonymity for anything less than $10900...

Senate Committee's busy reading week

Posted on January 31, 2010
The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee has published only 6 submissions received in connection with the inquiry into the Freedom of Information reform bills, but my submission and two others I am know of that made it by the deadline last Thursday are yet to appear...

No sign of imminent humbling for arrogance of power

Posted on January 31, 2010
A couple of readers drew my attention to Humbling power's arrogance by Malcolm Knox in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday in which he draws on John Keane (The Life and Death Of Democracy) and ANU academic Dr Janine O'Flynn in suggesting "greater transparency is not necessarily an unalloyed good:"In public sector areas where the public's demand for hard data is greatest - schools' performances, hospital waiting times, timeliness of trains and buses - the risk is highest that the pressure to provide transparent information will interfere with the performance of basic functions...

Tough and expensive going getting behind Climate Change

Posted on January 31, 2010
Mike Steketee in The Weekend Australian  had a follow up piece on attempts by Richard Denniss of The Australia Institute to access under the Freedom of Information Act, documents held by the Department of Climate Change, this time those prepared to help inform Minister Penny Wong and her advisers of the details, merits, limitations and criticisms of the Emissions Trading System...

Education in the right place

Posted on January 28, 2010
Terrific to see education on the front pages across the country, and the interest in our schools such that there were 1.5 million hits on the My School website yesterday. Long may it continue, and lead towards a real "education revolution" through better informed communities, better and better targeted funding, and voice and action to improve the quality of teaching, things that should flow from breaking the hold of public servants, teachers and politicians over the details of what goes in our schools...

Agencies not necessarily best at publishing what the public wants

Posted on January 27, 2010
One aspect of the Federal Government's Freedom of Information Reform (Amendment) Bill that will get some attention in my submission today is the pro-active publication scheme. The Bill itself doesn't take things far beyond the current requirements (except for wider publication of some information released to an applicant in response to an application, and information about statutory appointments)...

Memo Senate: Aussies back from beach soon

Posted on January 25, 2010
www.neatorama.com"Reform Now" commented on a recent post about the few submissions posted so far on the Senate Finance and Public Administration website in connection with its examination of the Federal Government's Freedom of Information Reform (Amendment) Bill - five to date...

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