Reviews of open government laws largely conducted behind closed doors are no exemplar for public engagement
Clearly some who walk the corridors of power think all wisdom resides withi n. NSW is a classic case, where a statutory review of legislation disappeared from public view in August 2014 and hasn't been heard of since. More below. Then there's the Hawke statutory review of the Commonwealth Freedom of I nformation and Information Commissioner acts in 2012-13 that involved very limited public engagement beyond invited submissions and led to a report in early 2013 that has not been the subject of policy discussion in the public domain since. The one Abbott government FOI initiative, the (ongoing) attempt to legislate to abolish the Office of Australian Information Commissioner was not supported by anything in the review report , on the contrary H awke conclud ing the office was doing a good job. That initiative wasn't discussed beforehand outside government and only with a few inside, with no apparent search for options and better answers to whatever problem (allegedly co...