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Media Release  APC 19 May 2017. "The Australian Press Council has awarded its Press Freedom Medal to two outstanding individuals for their major contributions to ensuring a free and open society: Peter Timmins - Australian Open Government Partnership Network and Michael Cameron - News Corp Australia. The 2017 Press Freedom Medals were awarded at a special ceremony in Sydney on 19 May. As well as members of the Press Council, journalists and guests from a variety of organisations attended. Peter Timmins is a well-known advocate of improved standards of transparency and accountability and Australia's leading expert on Freedom of Information (FOI) policy and privacy, as well as being a leader of the Australian Open Government Partnership Network and publisher of the Open and Shut blog. Michael Cameron is the National Editorial Counsel for News Corp Australia. He leads an in-house legal team, which he established, whose members have appeared in dozens of matters involving challen...

Vale Mark Colvin, a great sense of sadness at his death. I met him once. when he looked like this. In the 1980s he interviewed me for a Four Corners program on the Freedom of Information Act, whether it was working or not. All the footage of that interview ended up on the cutting room floor. I never held it against him. Probably great editorial judgment about what to leave out of the program that went to air! But what a wonderful companion by remote for years particularly for the last 20 at 6pm during dinner preparation.

The appropriation for the Office of Australian Information Commissioner in the 2017-18 Budget is $10.368 million, down from $10.618 million . ( A n 'efficiency dividend' counts fo r a reduction of $160,000.) Total funds available in 2017-18 (counting funding available from previous years and other revenue): $19.345 million compared to $19.045 million in 2016-17.  The average staffing level, 75 is unchanged. In the three 'out y ears' appropriations drop to $10.265 million, $8.999 million and $9.042 million. For outcomes measurement purposes t he office functions are lumped together in  a single o utcome in the Portfolio Budget Statement with budgeted expenses at $14.4 million ($14.988 million in the current year) for "Provision of public access to Commonwealth Government information, protection of individuals’ personal information, and performance of information commissioner, freedom of information and privacy functions." The office has extra re...