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With no sign of any weakening in the solid Senate majority against, Paul Farrell reports in The Guardian today that Senator Nick Xenophon wrote to Attorney General Brandis this week calling for the bill  to be withdrawn to end the uncertainty surrounding the office. Former Australian Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan in this interview with Farrell said the uncertainty "can’t continue. it’s very hard to maintain staff morale. It’s very hard to recruit really talented people on an ongoing basis when they don’t know whether the office is going to disappear from one month to the next,”  Professor McMillan reiterates points made in his piece in The Australian today and singles out the Attorney General's Department and senior public service leaders for special mention: .. McMillan told the Guardian the decision to scrap the office was a blow to open government. He called for more debate on freedom of information and hit back at claims by senior public officials...

Writing in The Australian today former Australian Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan argues the exercise has "further entrenched the cynicism and hypocrisy that has permeated the operation of open government laws for more than three decades."  Professor McMillan makes an urgent call for a constructive debate on the future of Freedom of Information, and has a message for Prime Minister Turnbull, the nation's very enthusiastic supporter of open government: "No political party can truly claim to subscribe to a policy of open government while this impasse continues." I'm sure The Australian and News Corp Australia won't mind if I let the professor speak for himself on this important subject:  Commitment to freedom of information bolsters our democracy It is 16 months since the government announced its intention to revise arrangements for resolving disputes about access to government information under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. At ...

Independently of Right to Know day or week - now there's a missed opportunity - Australian media organisations and journalists are finding new strong voice about freedom of speech,  press freedom and related issues, decrying poor efforts to speak up as the wave of national security laws washed through and freedom of information went backwards in the last few years. The chair of the Australian Press Council Professor David Weisbrot said laws proposed as a counterterrorism measure threatened the ­future of investigative journalism and must be revisited. He told The Australian the council had an important advocacy role, a role for a long time left to the publishers: “My view is that the issues are so central to all of our constituency, our readers and the newspapers, that we need to be involved and we can do that because if The Australian or the Tele or the Herald argues about these things, many people will see that as self-interested, whereas The Press Council, when we speak ...

A Right to Know Day panel that includes me (under my Twitter handle FOIGuru) is happy to respond to any questions about right to know, information access and related questions on Reddit .  But at 11.30pm local time in Sydney, with 28 September drawing to a close here as other parts of the world awake, I'll chime in with my take in the morning. Good night all.

IFLA On Right to Know Day   NSW Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd released a report by Professor Anita Stuhmcke of the University of Technology, Sydney commissioned by the IPC that provides an insight into the types of practical mechanisms utilised in selected international jurisdictions to promote open government through information sharing and citizen engagement.  Despite the title "Advancing the objects of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW): an international comparative evaluation of measures used to promote government information release"   the report is relevant anywhere policy makers (hopefully) and advocates (certainly) are wrestling with the challenge of how to encourage proactive release of government information. From the Executive Summary SECTION 3: The Concept of Open Government: History and challenges "This report bases its findings upon the three characteristics of open government as defined by the Organisation for Econ...

Right to Know Day or Week is coming your way next week if you are in 40 countries around the world that celebrate it and here at least in NSW and Queensland thanks to information commissioners in both states. Queensland's Right to Know Day theme this year is ’A right to information. Play your part.’ Yesterday Emeritus Professor Richard Mulgan  played his part delivering the Annual Solomon Lecture which I'll read with interest In NSW the Information Commissioner announced a "proactive campaign to encourage public sector agencies, universities and regional councils to champion open government and spread the message of proactive release of information to their stakeholders and communities." I'll be an interested listener at the “Switch on Open Government in NSW ” event on 29 September, where a panel will "examine the barriers to information sharing and showcase tangible manifestations of Open Government in achieving better service delivery through information...

It didn't take long for the Prime Minister to put down a marker that he is serious about the shift to 21st Century openness. The Administrative Arrangements Order (pdf) released yesterday sets out changes in ministerial responsibility. "Public data policy" gets a mention for the first time and with "Gov 2.0 and related matters", for years the bailiwick of Finance, is now a function for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The PM and the newly appointed Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Government Mitch Fifield are sure to be very 'hands on.' "Related matters" presumably signals that the Digital Transformation Office transfers from Communications where the PM as Communications minister got things going. The PM has ambitions in this field. In a speech in May Mr Turnbull said Australia "should aim to become the world's leading digital economy" and foreshadowed international and national initiatives: "...

At the swearing in of the Turnbull Ministry yesterday the Prime Minister told the Governor General Your Excellency, today we are ... forming a government for the 21st century. A ministry whose composition and focus reflects our determination, to ensure that Australia seizes the opportunities of this, the most exciting times in human history.  The Prime Minister repeated these descriptors a number of times over the last few days. He has also talked about his "wonderful new Cabinet, with brilliant younger people." A government wishing to be seen in these terms will want to ditch the 'at war with transparency' tag that the Abbott government seemed to wear with pride. ( Update : some movement underway ) The PM has said we need a new type of leadership and a government that is open and engaged. I don't expect this means a burst of transparency regarding 'on water' activities, but an early move on two related fronts would evidence the good intent. The Abbott ...

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is interested in a different approach to governing.  In outlining the case for change of leadership on Monday he spoke of the wisdom to be found outside Canberra's parliamentary triangle, the intention to be truly consultative and the importance of open government: We need to be truly consultative with colleagues, members of Parliament, senators and the wider public. We need an open government, an open government that recognises that there is an enormous sum of wisdom both within our colleagues in this building and, of course, further afield. An early test of the strength of this commitment will be whether the government withdraws the bill to abolish the Office of Australian Information Commissioner still sitting in the Senate Bills List after 16 months without majority support, and ends the two years of dithering about 'will we won't we' sign up to the Open Government Partnership. Decisions to stick with the bill and funding cutbac...

My local member Malcolm Turnbull is challenging for the leadership of the Liberal Party. There was plenty in his statement this afternoon including: We also need a new style of leadership in the way we deal with others whether it is our fellow members of Parliament, whether it is the Australian people. We need to restore traditional Cabinet government. There must be an end to policy on the run and captain's calls. We need to be truly consultative with colleagues, members of Parliament, senators and the wider public. We need an open government, an open government that recognises that there is an enormous sum of wisdom both within our colleagues in this building and, of course, further afield.  I'm going to drink to that! Cheers.

Farrah Tomazin in the Sunday Age focuses on Freedom of Information as one of the areas where the Victorian  Government needs to deliver results if as promised it intends to strengthen the integrity system it inherited.  As mentioned previously the Victorian FOI act represents the finest thinking of the nineteen eighties about government transparency and accountability but public expectations and international standards have moved on. Then there's the issue of implementation, lack of leadership and proper forceful oversight, and what appears to be a failed attempt by the previous government to establish an FOI commissioner with clout, resources and the capacity to get things moving in the right direction.    The Sunday Age Illustration: Matt Davidson.

Dark Green excellent, Green substantial, Red and Yellow not flash or worse, Grey 'not on our radar' New Zealand again is ranked first in the International Budget Partnership 2015 Open Budget Survey of budget transparency, public participation, and the performance of oversight agencies, the widely accepted authoritative international voice on such things. Congratulations to all five rated in the top category-NZ,Sweden South Africa, Norway and the US.   However budget transparency is rated Limited, Minimal, Scant or None in most countries surveyed particularly in our region. This fifth survey covers 102 countries but continues to not include two G20 members Australia and Japan ( Oops , add Canada as well).    When I raised questions about this two years ago I said Australia likely would rate reasonably well if we were assessed, although some Budget Portfolio Statements challenge this reader at least. Elena Mondo Supervisor, Open Budget Initiative replied to my em...

Walkley Award winning journalist Sarah Ferguson will present the 2015 A.N. Smith free public lecture " Freedom From Information-Australia's war on transparency " in Melbourne on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 . A taste: While governments – and major institutions – find new ways to limit transparency, the media industry itself is equally culpable, trading away its freedom to investigate for short term access. There is a war on transparency underway and the media is colluding with the wrong side.

Australia's fence sitting on where it stands on the Open Government Partnership continues to attract international interest. Included in commentary by Toby McIntosh in Washington last week was the response from the Department of Finance to the news, as McIntosh puts it, "that the OGP Steering Committee recently gave Australia until the end of October to indicate its intention to be an active member, or to join Russia as an OGP drop-out": “The Australian Government is positively inclined towards joining the Open Government Partnership but has yet to make a final decision,” the official said, adding, “The Government intends to form a view as soon as possible and will take as long as necessary.” As McIntosh received a response and having asked twice in recent weeks without success for answers from the Minister's office, this prompted me to try again, running these questions past the Media Centre: Has the government responded to the OGP Support Unit following repor...

The Abbott government continues to confuse some and dismay others following years of dithering about whether it wants to be part of the international movement committed to reform efforts designed to make government more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. Nothing to show for years of 'considering' Four years after Australia was invited to join the Open Government Partnership, 28 months after a previous government lodged notice of intention to join, and two years since coming to office the Abbott government has not responded publicly to queries from the OGP and prefers to say nothing in response to requests for clarification of where things stand.   For example these unanswered questions sent to the office of Minister for Finance Cormann twice in the last 10 days Has the government responded to the OGP Support Unit following reports of concern reflected in the minutes of the July meeting of the Steering Committee over Australia’s lack of action as a member? What ...

Eric Schlosser Author,Command And Control, interviewed last night on ABC Lateline: TONY JONES: Now, if this is all happening in the world's most advanced technological nuclear power, what's happening in Pakistan, which has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world, but we know the problems of the political system in Pakistan? ERIC SCHLOSSER: We don't know. We don't know how Russia is handling its nuclear weapons. I'm very critical of my government in my book, but the United States has been much more open about its nuclear weapons systems than any other country in the world and much more open about its accidents and mistakes. I mean, it took me years through the Freedom of Information Act to get this information, but at least I was able to get it. TONY JONES: It was kept secret until then. ERIC SCHLOSSER: It was kept secret ... TONY JONES: Hundreds of pages of incident reports which you acquired had all been kept secret. ERIC SCHLOSSER: I found more...

Emeritus Professor Richard Mulgan in The Canberra Times The slow death of the Office of Australian Information Commissioner recites the history of the government's (to date) failed attempt to abolish the office suggesting the government's cut in funding the FOI functions when the will of parliament is to maintain the office "rests on a strict, and distinctly "tricky", interpretation of the law." More significant is what happens to the information commissioner's function to report generally on government policies in relation to information, including the disclosure and accessibility of government information. This function casts the commissioner in the role of public champion of open government, a role which McMillan performed, for example, by monitoring agencies' administration of FOI and generally advocating a more proactive approach to disclosing information. The claim that the Attorney-General's Department can adequately cover for th...