International Law

Happy Australia Day

Posted on January 25, 2010
Congratulations to all Australia Day Award recipients. I didn't see anyone singled out specifically for contributions to open government, Freedom of Information or privacy protection - let me know if I missed any - but particular congratulations to the Ombudsman Professor John McMillan, Officer, Order of Australia:"For service to the law as the Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly in the areas of immigration and law enforcement, through leadership roles in professional bodies and as an academic...

Two different worlds, we hope...

Posted on January 21, 2010
On top of a myriad of other problems comes this US Supreme Court decision (see Washington Post's rundown) that finds restrictions on corporate spending in electoral campaigns inconsistent with the First Amendment's protection of political speech. The decision comes after decades of effort to limit corporate influence, but does not address the restriction on direct contributions to candidates, and upholds disclosure requirements for groups that mount advertising campaigns for and against candidates...

Minister reiterates open government commitment

Posted on January 21, 2010
Special Minister of State Senator Joe Ludwig gives this positive assessment of Federal Government achievements and plans for open government in Fairfax publications today. There's room for qualifiers on some of what he says-a couple of the printed comments suggest pigs are flying - but in the spirit of a new year, and Australia Day, it's a welcome restatement for the record of the commitment to "restore trust and integrity in the use of Commonwealth Government information, promoting a pro-disclosure culture and protecting the public interest through genuine reform"...

Senate powers to access documents one of the issues for 2010

Posted on January 21, 2010
The  Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee will be sharpening the pencil this week and next with a report due on 2 February on a problem former Clerk of the Senate Harry Evans describes as one of the biggest facing legislatures around the world: what should be done when a minister, on claimed public interest immunity grounds, refuses to produce documents in response to an order, and the Senate only has a broad statement of reasons  for the claim?The Committee is considering a proposal to call on an independent arbiter to determine if the claims are justified...

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The hat you are wearing may have FOI implications.

Posted on January 20, 2010
This report by Richard Baker in The Age about an unsuccessful Freedom of Information application to the Reserve Bank of Australia for a report on the legality of multimillion-dollar payments to foreign middlemen used to win currency printing contracts, appears to indicate the RBA is claiming that a  document held by an officer of an agency as director of a separate but related entity is not held by the agency , and not subject to FOI...

Rann: whatever it cost, it's worth it.

Posted on January 20, 2010
Dean Jaensch in The Advertiser today comments on Lance Armstrong's ringing endorsement for Premier Mike Rann in a press conference, when he said he would very much like to see "Ranny" win the South Australian election, due soon, and be returned to office...

Teachers on free speech about schools: should be a law against it!

Posted on January 19, 2010
The proposed publication of national school performance data now has teachers threatening to boycott  literacy and numeracy tests unless the Government bans the publication of league tables. You have to wonder what the same teachers tell students when it comes to discussion of free speech in the classroom...

Early "Gotcha" prize

Posted on January 19, 2010
Sean Parnell FOI Editor of The Australian is a contender - but it's still early in the year -  for this story yesterday that Freedom of Information requests to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for any written references given, resulted in a refusal from the PM on the basis that such documents are not covered by the Act, while Treasurer Wayne Swan released his in full...

E-health privacy concerns suggest close scrutiny in the Senate.

Posted on January 18, 2010
The quietish run for the Federal Government's e-health plans seems to be coming to an end, with The Australian IT and Adelaide Now both reporting concerns about patient privacy and data security risks, and putting a different slant on things than Health Minister Roxon might have hoped after taking part in a demonstration of connectivity yesterday...

Retention and destruction of drafts might need a closer look

Posted on January 17, 2010
While it wasn't a key point in the case, Deputy President Levy in Mullen v Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy [2010] AATA 7 refers [37] to drafts of documents requested in a Freedom of Information application and to the agency's claim that departmental policy does not require "such documents to be kept and, in fact, requir(es) them to be destroyed...

Not just ASIO

Posted on January 14, 2010
From The Australian:"Perth barrister Malcolm McCusker QC has taken up the fight of accused war criminal Charles Zentai for no fee in an attempt to help the 88-year-old avoid extradition to Hungary. Mr McCusker's first task will be to argue in the Federal Court for access to the unedited documents on which Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor based his extradition ruling in the case...

Journalist credentials- by hypnosis

Posted on January 14, 2010
Richard Ackland has a column in today's Sydney Morning Herald  in which he asks, as more information is sought online, where this leaves journalism and the cosy codes that govern the conduct of journalists? In other words who is a journalist in an online world of bloggers and others in which news people make the "awful discovery" that any number of readers know infinitely more about the topic being reported than the journalist who delivers the goods? The issue was also canvassed here recently in the context of Freedom of Information charge concessions that the Federal Government proposes, which would involve each government agency determining on reasonable belief that the applicant is a journalist...

Sound of wheels turning on Christmas eve.

Posted on January 14, 2010
The NSWLRC Report on Privacy Principles dated August was released on 22 December, without statement or comment by the Commission or the Attorney General. The Report recommends a number of changes to the Australian Law Reform Commission's Unified Privacy Principles...

We're ASIO, we're right, believe us

Posted on January 13, 2010
Who knows - ASIO's assessment that five tamil refugees originally from Sri Lanka pose a danger to national security, opinion formed before they arrived in the country, might be right. But the five, let alone the rest of us won't be be able to assess or test ASIO's findings...

WA leads on ANPR- privacy doesn't rate a mention

Posted on January 13, 2010
This breathless recent report in The Australian about the Western Australian Police leading the nation in the wonders of Automated Number Plate Technology, failed to mention the fact that ANPR won the Orwell Award for the most invasive technology at the Australian Privacy Foundation Big Brother Awards...

FOI fees and charges proposals raise questions and uncertainties

Posted on January 11, 2010
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet set 11 January for submissions on the Freedom of Information (Fees and Charges) Amendment Regulations Exposure Draft, presumably because something close to business as usual would return to Canberra,  so I scrambled a few thoughts together yesterday to meet the deadline...

Federal Government FOI Annual Report a curate's egg

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Annual Report on Federal Freedom of Information Act for the year ending 30 June 2009 was released by Minister Ludwig on 22 December, with the Minister's Media Release, not surprisingly, emphasising the positive, opening as follows:Australian Government agencies are taking less time to make decisions on requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act...

McKinnon High Court challenge documents released; still trouble elsewhere

Posted on January 06, 2010
Special Minister of State Senator Ludwig made sure the public were informed that Treasury documents the subject of the ministerial certificate that prompted an unsuccessful High Court challenge in 2006 had now been released by that department, in the first instance that has come to light of a new application for documents previously covered by a certificate, following legislative removal of the power to issue them...

"The principle is simple: if you're paying for it, you should know about it"

Posted on January 06, 2010
Getting the balance right between transparency and acccountability for the use of public funds, and the efficient and effective conduct of government functions in pursuing the interests of the state is a vexed and complicated question. The Age is on the warpath about lack of public information about Victorian taxpayer contributions to major events...

Exceptions to 30 year rule still rule

Posted on January 06, 2010
One aspect of the annual release of Federal Government cabinet documents thirty years old that did not attract much attention was what was not released because of continuing sensitivity. Fairfax papers did report as follows:Not all of the 1979 cabinet documents have been released: at least 24 were censored...

Bright new open government year yet to dawn in NSW.

Posted on January 06, 2010
Matthew Moore in the Sydney Morning Herald (Shortage of candidates stalls FOI) had the NSW Attorney General confirm the rumour reported here that the first attempt to recruit an information commissioner had been abandoned with headhunters now on the job...

Business as usual

Posted on January 06, 2010
I'm back on deck with a fresh blog look for 2010 and some new features that hopefully add to the efficacy of the site- particularly a "read more" feature that should give you an option to read further, or not  as the case may be, when I have a rush of blood and go on and on, as happens from time to time.

Happy new year.

Posted on December 31, 2009
Best wishes and thanks for your interest in issues covered here. Year on year we registered a 78% increase in traffic in 2009, with November and December figures up 115% and 132% on the same months last year. Total hits were over 30,000, 78% from Australia, 10% from the US, 3% from the UK, with Canada, New Zealand, India, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia and the Netherlands, in that order, rounding out the top ten...

Brandis late entry for chutzpah 2009 prize

Posted on December 30, 2009
I've still got my feet up but didn't miss this opinion piece by Opposition front bencher Senator George Brandis in The Australian yesterday, serving it up to the Rudd Government (which deserves quite a bit) over Freedom of Information reform, but going overboard with claims that nothing has been done, and without the slightest note of irony, commenting (as a former minister in the Howard Government) that ministers must lead on the culture change issue...

Who is a journalist? Yes it will matter...

Posted on December 22, 2009
This will be a issue of some significance when the Federal Freedom of Information Reform (Amendment) Bill 2009 passes Parliament (again, hopefully) next year.The companion Exposure Draft Federal Freedom of Information (Fees and Charges) Amendment Regulation 2009 proposes that where an agency is reasonably satisfied that the applicant is a journalist and the application is made in connection with the applicant's activities as a journalist there will be no charge for the first five hours of time spent in dealing with the application...

Gov 2.0 Task Force points the way forward

Posted on December 22, 2009
Nicholas Gruen CEO Lateral EconomicsMake what you will of the fact that Ministers Tanner and Ludwig, having received the Gov 2.0 Task Force Final Report, released it immediately- on 22 December. This time of year is often associated with the release of information that sails beneath the radar, not just Christmas reading...

That's about it for now-all the best to all of you

Posted on December 22, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/imagesNot guilty, but a glimpse of Sydney in summer.Best wishes to readers and thanks for the interest, leads, feedback and comments during the year. I'm not travelling far, so irregular or normal transmission will resume as and when something crops up, and at least after a suitable post Christmas/ New Year recovery period.

Information commissioners need to carry a big stick-and use it

Posted on December 21, 2009
With Federal and NSW information commissioners to be appointed next year (well, hopefully) to join those operating for years in Queensland and Western Australia, and the Tasmanian Ombudsman to have new responsibilities, this first broad ranging interview by Christopher Graham after six months as Information Commissioner in the UK provides food for thought about the style and approach needed:"I think (in the past) the Information Commissioner's Office [ICO] has not been alert enough and fierce enough with public authorities that do not comply with their requirements under the Freedom of Information [FOI] Act," he said...

Year end downer to positive FOI reform in NSW

Posted on December 20, 2009
Further to where things stand in NSW, I've heard that the recruitment process for Information Commissioner, kicked off with great urgency in September when applicants had only two weeks to apply, ran into the sand somewhere after interviews took place with a panel chaired by Secretary of the Department of Justice and Attorney General, and before any name was put by the Attorney General to the Parliamentary Committee with veto power over an appointment...

Tale of two cities when it comes to FOIing ministers

Posted on December 18, 2009
Any resemblance to recently deposed NSW Premier Nathan Rees purely coincidental.Since 1991 NSW has stood out from other jurisdictions with no overall reporting on agency Freedom of Information performance (apart from an Ombudsman's survey not necessarily undertaken every year), with each agency reporting individually in its annual report...

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