faulker03

In t he 2014-15 Annual Report on the operation of the NSW Government Information (Public Access) Act tabled in Parliament las t week, Information C ommissioner E lizabeth Tydd commented that the strategic intent of the GIPA Act is "not being fully realised " because of shortcomings in the proactive release of information by government agencies, and in response to applications for information,that there ha d been an overall decline in information released.  The Mandarin provide s a good summary.  P oints of interest from my reading: c ompliance by agencies with mandatory proactive disclosure requirements is down from 80% in 2012/13 to 69% in 201 4-15 . ( Comment : If agencies aren't fully complying with mandatory proactive disclosure requirement s almost six years after the act came into force you have to wonder what difficulty they have in understanding the term 'mandatory.' The Commissioner doesn't name agencies - in the ca se of those at th...

The Attorney General is to appeal the Tribunal decision against his office handed down by Justice Jagot in December and the subject of three posts here earlier in the week.  No surprise, the appeal to the Federal Court is "in the public interest" according to a spokeswoman for Senator Brandis, quoted in Fairfax : "the tribunal's findings had "wide-ranging implications for the FOI system. Accordingly, it is in the public interest that there be judicial clarification of how the FOI system operates," she said. Senator Brandis' lawyers will argue that Justice Jagot "erred" by not deciding that FOI decision makers needed to consult all third parties named in diary entries, where "there was some prospect that such an entry might be exempt [from disclosure]," court documents say. Not sure how the appeal advances the Attorney General's concern expressed before Christmas that "as a general rule minister's diaries ought not ...

In the House of Representatives yesterday Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, ALP) moved: That this House: (1) expresses concern at the culture of secrecy prevalent in the Government and the serious undermining of the core principles enshrined in the freedom of information legislation; (2) notes the Government has: (a) defunded the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) despite failing to pass its legislation to abolish the office; and (b) failed to advance Australia's application for the Open Government Partnership (OGP); and (3) calls on the Government to abandon its attack on the OAIC and provide it with proper funding, and recommit to joining the OGP. The motion didn't get far in the 10 minutes allocated before debate was adjourned with Mactiernan and L abor Party colleague Graham Perrett the only speakers. Could the lack of interest or appetite on government benches to contest the argument suggest a decision not to waste time defending the indefensible while re...

The Australian government seems to have kept its distance from the Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Mexico City last week while c lose to 3000 by some calculations gathered there to discuss, explore, share and learn about enhancing open, transparent government and citizen participation . In a week when Environment M inister Greg Hunt was speaking in Beijing " attempting to re-assert the nation's eco-credentials on the world stage after the removal of Tony Abbott as prime minister " the government did little to assure domestic and international audiences that the Abbott era 'war on transparency' was a thing of the past. There was no response , publicly at least , to a request four months ago that the government clarify its intentions regarding OGP membership b efore the summi t. A nd there was no Australian government representation there as far as I can ascertain although who knows, someone in the embassy may have had nothing more pres...

Disappointing that the Turnbull Government chose to keep the head down rather than step up publicly with a positive response to the request three months ago from the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee to recommit by the time of the OGP Global Summit in Mexico this week.  Spirits here rose sharply yesterday morning when my email inbox lit up: Re: Commitment to open government -  Whitney Brennan Office of The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP Only to drop like a stone when it turned out to be pretty much the standard boiler plate, pass the parcel reply to an email sent to the PM a week ago about the OGP and the related issue, the continuing saga of the Attorney General's attempt to scuttle the Office of Australian Information Commissioner.  Toby McIntosh reports over one thousand delegates from 94 countries attended the Civil Society Day in Mexico City yesterday prior to the official two-day OGP meeting. Meanwhile back in Canberra.......   Emails to and from the PM...