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 In the absence of any statement beforehand, the Budget on Tuesday will next indicate whether the government intends to maintain the position that it wants to legislate the Office of Australian Information Commissioner out of existence.  The Freedom of Information Act Amendment (New Arrangements) Bill, before the Senate since October 2014 but not brought on for a vote is not among the bills reintroduced during the two days parliament met in April.  The bill still gets a mention on Page 31 of the Senate list of Bills in the lapsed due to prorogation of the last session category. As at COB on 19 July eight bills were introduced or reintroduced into the House of Representatives and 59 in the Senate. Most, introduced by Labor and The Greens should be on a wish list instead, given Budget week is the only sitting before the PM says we are off to the polls.  This includes Senator Ludwig's Private Member's Freedom of Information (Requests and Reasons) Bill , a bill opposed by the g

An entry in today's Senate Bills List - there are over 200 bills in th e 'lapsed' category as the new session of parliament kicks off but let's hope common sense, the co mmon good and the Prime Minister's endorsement of the goals of the Open Government Partnership mean this is the last we'll hear of this one: Freedom of Information Amendment (New Arrangements) Bill 2014 Amends the: Freedom of Information Act 1982 to provide for: the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to have sole jurisdiction for external merits review of freedom of information (FOI) decisions; the Attorney-General to be responsible for FOI guidelines, collection of FOI statistics and the annual report on the operation of the Act; and the Ombudsman to have sole responsibility for the investigation of FOI complaints; and Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 and Privacy Act 1988 to provide for an Australian Privacy Commissioner as an independent statutory officer holder within the Au