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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

2020 vision suffers from near-sightedness

Posted on April 22, 2009
Reaction to the Government's response to the Final Report on last year's 2020 Summit seems to be somewhere between "underwhelmed" and "disappointed" as illustrated in these articles in Fairfax papers and The Australian, the Oz editorial and Mike Steketee's comments...

Government round-table on FOI Reform bills.

Posted on April 21, 2009
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will host a forum for interested persons to discuss the exposure draft Freedom of Information reform bills in Canberra on Thursday 7 May, from 2.30-4.30. To attend email foiconsultation@pmc.gov.au or telephone Maia Ablett on 6271 5245 by 5 May 2009...

APSAC cleaning up corruption in Brisbane

Posted on April 21, 2009
The program has been finalised for the second Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference- APSAC, sponsored by the three state commissions- to be held in Brisbane in July 2009. The four days will feature top figures in this and related fields from Australia and overseas and cover contemporary anti-corruption trends and strategies, including sessions on the media and exposing corruption,

NSW Supreme Court on "disclosure to the world"

Posted on April 21, 2009
Justice Smart in the NSW Supreme Court in Gene Simring v Commissioner of Police, NSW Police[2009] NSWSC 270 considered the applicability of the Victorian Court of Appeal decision (in Marke) that disclosure to a Freedom of Information applicant was not necessarily disclosure to the world at large, and that an applicant's purpose in seeking access can be relevant when making an assessment under

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Lobbyist registration schemes not quite all the same

Posted on April 20, 2009
http://blogs.e-rockford.comThe three Australian lobbyist registration schemes are essentially the same- hired guns need to register with some exceptions; an on-line publicly available register of lobbyists and clients; ministers and public servants are not to meet unregistered lobbyists; and a failure by lobbyists to act in accordance with the code of conduct could result in loss of access

Premier Rees: "the taxpayers of NSW are entitled to know what I do day-to-day "

Posted on April 19, 2009
NSW Premier Nathan Rees has moved some way since the days of his predecessor, who following in the steps of the media meister who went before him, Bob Carr, wouldn't even put media releases on the web."Leave no footprints" was the mantra of those times...

Remember 2020?

Posted on April 18, 2009
Michelle Grattan seems to have been on the receiving end of a good leak in reporting about the Government's response to ideas put forward at last year's 2020 Summit- to be revealed in detail next week, long after the original commitment to respond by the end of last year...

What's in a name?

Posted on April 16, 2009
A lot depends on the context, as two recent NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal Freedom of Information cases involving NSW Police illustrate.Details of a victim/witness named in a report of an incident, as you would expect are likely to be unavailable unless there are special and unusual circumstances...

Fairly "radical" initiatives regarding private sector disclosure.

Posted on April 15, 2009
http://stephenyears.com/blog/"Radical transparency" according to an entry on Wikipedia is "a management approach in which (ideally) all decision making is carried out publicly." You can see why the "radical" tag fits. Last month Daniel Roth in Wired ran it up as part of the solution to the current crisis in financial regulation around the world (and in other sectors as well), a theme picked up

New NSWADT cost powers get first workout.

Posted on April 15, 2009
In January in "Long lost review sort of surfaces, four years late" I commented on the statutory review report on the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act tabled with so little fanfare in Parliament years late by the Attorney General that the President of the Tribunal appeared to not notice; that the review was then (and still) yet to be published on the Attorney General's website, so few

Secrecy unveiled at Spy Museum.

Posted on April 14, 2009
What a nice invitation from Washington?s Spy Museum in the mail today:Dear Peter,We?d be delighted to have you as our guest at the Spy Museum?s upcoming event about freedom of information and government secrecy. The event is taking place tomorrow, Tuesday April 14, at 6:30 pm at the International Spy Museum, 800 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20004...

Not much sizzle yet, to open government sausage.

Posted on April 14, 2009
I wonder if thinkers in government here about how to enhance transparency in the Google age are keeping up with action elsewhere to give practical effect to ideas such as developments referred to by Nick Troiano in Realizing Transparency 2.0 Through Social Media ...

Credit grade for Faulkner.

Posted on April 14, 2009
You might be interested in this assessment of the Federal Freedom of Information Reform proposals by Ken Parish,writing for Club Troppo. Ken gives the package a credit grade, and thinks I have been a little unfair. I'll leave it to you, dear reader.Ken Parish is a Darwin-based lawyer and former Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly...

Government by the people,for the people,and accountable..to Parliament.

Posted on April 13, 2009
A significant aspect of the Victorian Court of Appeal decision in the Osland case (apart from apparently putting an end to Mrs Osland's legal attempts to find out more about the decision to refuse her petition for mercy) was the Court's finding that the Freedom of Information Act does not bring anything new to, or enlarge, traditional notions of ministerial accountability...

Clean but unofficial version of proposed Federal FOI act

Posted on April 07, 2009
John Fitzgerald is a lawyer with over 20 years experience in Administrative Law. He is currently writing a text on Freedom of Information in Australia. John has done a service with a "cut and paste" of the current Freedom of Information Act and the proposed changes, additions and deletions to produce a clean version of the entire FOI act as it would look if the proposals go forward...

Osland bid for advice on pardon fails in Victorian Court of Appeal.

Posted on April 07, 2009
The Victorian Court of Appeal in a unanimous joint decision has ruled in the Osland case that the Civil and Administrative Tribunal had been wrong in finding that the public interest required the grant of access to legal opinions provided to the Attorney General in connection with the decision to refuse her petition for mercy following conviction for murder of her husband...

The state of FOI:a phrase, a sentence or about 240 words.

Posted on April 06, 2009
I know that editors and journalists have to be short and sharp, but in an otherwise fair comment about the state of the game and particularly the wider impact of lies to journalists in today's Australian, the reference to "Freedom of Information laws that barely function" is too harsh...

Transparency still a struggle despite the law.

Posted on April 06, 2009
www.imagingstation.com.auIt's not clear from this report about a broader local council issue whether the Sydney Morning Herald was or wasn't sidetracked by the response from Burwood Council chief architect Albert Becerra: "When asked for access to his pecuniary interest declaration, Mr Becerra said the Herald would have to submit a freedom-of-information request...

Sir Humphrey lives- surely not?

Posted on April 05, 2009
The late Nigel Hawthorne aka Sir Humphrey.NSW Premier Nathan Rees and some of his close advisers might be a bit young to remember the famous BBC "Yes Minister " series. His comment last week that the Ombudsman's FOI Review Report is "currently under active consideration by my Government" for some of us, and without justification, we hope , prompted a memory of Sir Humphrey, the quintessential

ACT on the FOI reform bandwagon

Posted on April 05, 2009
The Australian Capital Territory is the latest to join the Australian Freedom of Information review rush following a decision last week by the Legislative Assembly to ask the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety to conduct an inquiry into the 1989 Act...

FOI for Boffins (Mark 2)-warning:not for the faint-hearted

Posted on April 02, 2009
www.oxfordentrepreneurs.co.ukYou could write a book on the subject- a few will- but given the complexity involved in working through the Exposure Draft of the Federal Government's Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill, for my own purposes and perhaps of assistance to you, the following is a summary of some of the more significant aspects of what would change and stay the same...

Not guilty, your honour.

Posted on April 02, 2009
www.bushtelegraph.files.wordpress.comIn the NSW Legislative Council yesterday we had the following about non-ministerial involvement in Freedom of Information decision- making:The Hon Greg Pearce: My question is directed to the Minister for Primary Industries, Minister for Energy, Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for State Development...

From potholes to a big hole.

Posted on April 02, 2009
That NSW Ombudsman report sounds more fascinating by the day, with this from Simon Benson in today's Daily Telegraph that the report includes information that the RTA engaged a company connected with its former minister and former chief executive to deal with some of the ensuing mess that arose concerning the investigation of the handling of a Freedom of Information application for documents

Tasmania also sees the need to start again.

Posted on April 01, 2009
In contrast to the Federal Government's approach to reform in suggesting modifications to the 27 year old Freedom of Information Act, and putting out 130 pages of amendments for public comment,Tasmania today followed the lead of Queensland, and the NSW Ombudsman, with Attorney General Lara Giddings proposing that the existing complex and confusing Freedom of Information Act be scrapped and

Transparency part of the answer to lifting performance in the hospital system

Posted on April 01, 2009
From the NSW Government's response to the Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals( Garling) on Tuesday."A Bureau of Health Information will be created to support transparency in health data and allow greater local control of information analysis...

Something bigger than a pothole.

Posted on April 01, 2009
A Daily Telegraph Freedom of Information application to the Roads and Traffic Authority for documents about potholes, and a subsequent investigation by the Ombudsman into interference from the then minister's office has taken another turn as reported today, with new information about steps taken to try to keep the Ombudsman at bay with big bucks paid to a top Sydney law firm...

Surveillance questions in Victoria raise issues for us all.

Posted on March 31, 2009
The Victorian Law Reform Commission has released a Discussion Paper on Surveillance in Public Places. Chairperson of the commission, Neil Rees, said ?surveillance affects all Victorians whether we are shopping, catching public transport, driving on major roads, or attending a sporting event?...

Some analysis of the FOI reform package.

Posted on March 31, 2009
Minister Faulkner's Freedom of Information reform package is draft legislation to give effect to Labor's election commitments. ( Memory jogger- pre-election policy.pdf ).The commitment apart from words about the end of excessive secrecy, change in culture across government, and promotion of greater opennness and transparency, was to implement "key findings" of the

Turning the switch to transparency.

Posted on March 29, 2009
You may or may not agree with Henry Ergas of Concept Economics in The Australian that the Government is on the road to disaster with half-baked populism involving long term costs. But his list of closed decision-making processes in the economic policy area is a reminder of from where we start with the new proposed object in the draft Freedom of Information Bill of promoting "Australia's

MPs so-called free trips under the spotlight.

Posted on March 29, 2009
Senator Nick Xenophon Independent South Australia.Heightened interest in what members of parliament get up to and what they do and do not tell us, with the Sydney Morning Herald revealing that many benefit from free travel without disclosing who pays, and similar reports elsewhere...

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