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International Law

Open and Shut

Issues associated with Freedom of Information (FOI) and privacy legislation in Australia as well as privacy issues generally.

Post Frequency: 4/day

Last Entry: October 30, 2020 at 10:02:02

UK snout stories interesting, but...

Posted on May 12, 2009
The Australian media are finding plenty to say, as in "MPs on nose for snouts in trough" by Paola Totaro in Fairfax papers today, about rorts revealed in the UK. Few if any seem to be making the point that in many respects we just don't know how Australian counterparts spend much of the taxpayers' money that comes their way.

More than awareness needed for this privacy problem

Posted on May 12, 2009
Things aren't good in the small and medium size business sector in Australia and New Zealand when it comes to protection of personal information. A survey by Symantec shows security breaches - where information has been subject to unauthorised access, often where the data is lost, stolen, or hacked- had occurred in more than half the businesses surveyed...

Press Council reform takes a hair-cut in tough times

Posted on May 11, 2009
Buried away at the back of the Government's response to the Report of the 2020 Summit in a list of "Ideas others may progress", this from the Governance Group:"? Improve accountability of the media (Press Council). The media should be accountable to the public, including radio, television and media on the internet...

What about Australian MPs' allowances and expenses?

Posted on May 11, 2009
The UK MPs' expenses issue- 1626 articles listed in a Google news search this morning-continues to be big news there. Heather Brooke and her "Your Right to Know" blog deserve the credit for pushing against the odds for four years for transparency and accountability from parliamentarians for allowance and expense reimbursements...

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Corporate ID theft and government contract disclosures

Posted on May 10, 2009
With developments here moving in the direction, or already there, of routine on-line publication of information about government contracts, this report in the Chicago Tribune about a scam in which perpetrators stole the identities of companies listed as contractors to the state Auditor, then managed to have $2million deposited into false bank accounts, is of interest...

Anything more than stomachs rumbling in Adelaide?

Posted on May 10, 2009
www.electricpig.co.ukSome rumblings in South Australia, at the instigation of the Ombudsman, at council refusals to disclose information on "public interest" grounds sought under the Freedom of Information Act about breaches of food hygiene standards...

Who knows what parliamentarians do with our money?

Posted on May 10, 2009
The three jurisdictions in Australia moving now on Freedom of Information reforms have shown no interest in extending the scope of legislation to parliament.The Federal and NSW governments haven't bothered to explain publicly why they rejected recommendations to this effect from the Australian Law Reform Commission and the NSW Ombudsman respectively...

Only a small round table required for Federal FOI Reform discussion

Posted on May 08, 2009
The public forum on the Federal Government's Freedom of Information Reform package in Canberra yesterday was a useful chat about some of the issues arising and the detail of elements of the draft legislation. But not much in the way of improved understanding about why some of the 1995 recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission -for example,extension of the act to the parliament, reducing time for processing from the long established 30 days to 14 days, fees to be based on documents released - have not been acted upon...

Federal public servants urged to get on board for openness and transparency

Posted on May 06, 2009
Special Minister of State Faulkner did get that letter off last week to Federal Government public service bosses, and he did urge them to get on board with Government policy on access to information now, not to just sit there awaiting new Freedom of Information legislation:"These reforms, although important, will not deliver the openness and transparency so essential to accountability and to a robust democracy, unless FOI decision-makers embrace the disposition towards disclosure which informs the FOI Act reforms...

Detail of NSW FOI reforms

Posted on May 06, 2009
The Premier's media release is here and NSW Freedom of Information Reform package here. Submissions close 15 June. If you take a look, really hope you come back here and leave a comment, question or observation. Allcomers welcome.

Google Public Data shows governments a potential trick or two

Posted on May 06, 2009
If governments haven't got it regarding the potential power of technology to utilise their information for public purposes in readily accessible formats, it's Google to the rescue with the launch in the US last week of Google Public Data. Here is the Washington Post take...

Canberra bound as we speak

Posted on May 06, 2009
I'm off to Canberra this morning to attend the public forum later today at PM&C on the Federal Government's Freedom of Information Reform proposals. I may not get a chance to add anything here until Friday afternoon. In the meantime your thoughts, or questions are welcome.

A couple of candidates for improved transparency in NSW

Posted on May 06, 2009
www.grantsready.comThe publication of information about school performance and government grants in NSW, which both featured in news reports critical of the current transparency arrangements yesterday, are examples of the sort of thing the public should expect to be different with a government now moving in the direction of best practice access to government information...

Premier Rees tables Freedom of Information reform proposals

Posted on May 05, 2009
NSW Premier Nathan Rees has released to the media today the draft Open Government Information Bill and other documents related to replacement of the Freedom of Information Act.They are not on the web as yet, but the text of the Premier's media release dated tomorrow is as follows, I'll have something to say when I see the detail...

NSW FOI reforms- close to gold star

Posted on May 05, 2009
The draft bills and other documents concerning the proposed NSW Open Government Information Act will be available online later today.The three media reports on the proposed changes this morning are here.There is a lot of fine print to be read closely but my initial reading indicates a lot to like in this reform package...

E-Health back on the agenda- privacy issues to follow

Posted on May 04, 2009
www.epha.orgThe National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) has released a paper which outlines the case for person-controlled electronic health records for every Australian by 2012.The Commission says an electronic health record is arguably the single most important enabler of truly person-centred care...

World Press Freedom Day just another day in Canberra

Posted on May 03, 2009
World Press Freedom Day yesterday served as a reminder that fortunately we don't face here the enormous challenges that journalists face in some parts of the world to stay alive and stay out of jail. UNESCO awarded its 2009 press freedom prize posthumously to Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga for his work as a newspaper editor...

Warming journalists' hearts- now that's a challenge

Posted on May 03, 2009
http://blogs.abc.net.auParticularly that of veteran journalist Laurie Oakes, political editor of the Nine Network. But he told the MEAA Press Freedom dinner on Friday that John Faulkner had done it in announcing the planned Freedom of Information reforms, even though other developments or non-developments leave Oakes somewhat chilled to the bone...

Genuine privacy fears from FOI reform- or something else?

Posted on May 01, 2009
The headline "Privacy fears over FOI law reform" to Chris Merritt's article in today's Australian seems ironic given that the paper has, in the "Your right to know " campaign, urged Freedom of Information reform, and been dead against the idea of a statutory cause of action for breach of privacy, proposed as one aspect of reform of privacy laws...

FOI reforms a red flag for business?

Posted on April 30, 2009
www.creditcards.comIn a recent post I mentioned significant aspects of Minister Faulkner's Federal Freedom of Information reform package regarding private sector or business information -changes to the business affairs exemption and planned referral to the ALRC of the issue of private sector disclosures- and that so far, the Government has not invested time or energy in explaining why they are necessary and warranted...

NSWLRC throws an oar in on FOI reform

Posted on April 29, 2009
This is from a post in early February, generally welcoming the NSW Ombudsman review report on the Freedom of Information Act:"The Premier has responded in a media release with a general commitment to greater transparency, to Cabinet consideration of the report's 88 recommendations, and to introducing the new Open Government Information Bill in "the upcoming session of parliament...

Googling government information

Posted on April 28, 2009
http://weblogs.newsday.comWith the Queensland, Federal and NSW governments all moving in the direction of greater pro-active disclosure of information on the web, as part of Freedom of information reforms, one question that arises is whether we can find important information relevant to our interests, now and once the new era is underway, using publicly available search engines such as Google?Search engine results are essentially statistical...

Shine a little light on politicians use of public money

Posted on April 28, 2009
This letter in today's Sydney Morning Herald under the heading "Show us the money" in response to yesterday's editorial, will sound familiar to those who read the post here on the same subject on Monday."I agree we should accept the umpire's reasonable assessment that an increase in electoral allowance is justified ("Let's be honest about MPs' pay", April 28)...

No sign of transparency for MPs allowance spending

Posted on April 27, 2009
A fuss of sorts today over a Remuneration Tribunal Determination to increase the electoral allowance for Federal senators and members of the House of Representatives by $4700, the first increase for years. Guardians of the public purse such as Senator Bob Brown threaten disallowance when the matter comes before the Senate...

Goodbye to 2020 and all that

Posted on April 26, 2009
A couple of final thoughts on the 2020 Summit before all that enthusiasm and thousands of ideas disappear completely beneath the sand.David McLennan in the Canberra Times (seriously) and Bruce Chapman in The Australian (amusingly) both highlight the problem of an over-ambitious plan to get 1000 people together for less than two days, with a blue sky agenda, in a process ultimately over engineered in the search for consensus...

Federal agency privacy concerns.

Posted on April 23, 2009
If you weren't relaxed and comfortable after reading last week that doctors "will be forced to hand over patient medical files to Medicare to prove they have performed the services they have claimed, in a move the Government says will save taxpayers about $148 million over four years," you won't feel any better, and maybe a bit worse, after seeing the front page story in today's Australian Financial Review,"ATO lashed over privacy breaches"( no link available), summarised in Business Spectator...

RSS subscribers.

Posted on April 23, 2009
If you keep up to date with postings on this blog with an RSS feed, just a note to say that the settings have been altered to provide from now on the full text, rather than the first few lines.

Open slather

Posted on April 23, 2009
Thought an experiment might be worth a try - an invitation to anyone to post a comment, opinion or observation, or raise an issue of interest or concern about any matters of likely interest to others who come here. Brevity (I know, not necessarily my best suit, but some of this stuff is complicated) and civility are the only rules...

Shield laws set for lively debate.

Posted on April 23, 2009
Attorney General Senator Robert McClelland.Some heavy going still ahead on the issue of proposed changes to shield laws for journalists, an important aspect of the discussion we are having about free speech, the right to know and the role of the media...

Mayor of Gosford flunks accountability 101

Posted on April 22, 2009
On ABC 7.30 Report last night, Matt Peacock interviewed the Mayor of Gosford about $40 million in write-downs on Council's investments in collateralised debt obligations. A local business group has asked the Council questions as to exactly what funds have been invested in what schemes...

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