faulker03

Paul Farrell of Guardian Australia was not only busy on the Nauru files in recent weeks , he's also been a very interested party in the challenge in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to refusal of his Freedom of information application for documents about boat turnbacks.   We will have to wait until the AAT decision for the detail but among a number of issues the case is testing is the meaning of “security of the Commonwealth” in the FOI act. According to this report "Farrell’s barrister pushed the point that “national security” was not relevant for operations that were unlawful and the government’s incursions into Indonesian waters, which were covered in some of these logs, were unlawful in his view ." Guardian Australia’s barrister Tom Brennan told the hearing : “Security in the Asio act goes beyond that which is dealt within the FoI act, because it’s not limited to the security of the body politic. It’s directed also to the security of people.“There can be no do...

The freedom of information system wouldn't produce anything like the Nauru Files published by Guardian Australia today following a leak of more than 2000 incident reports from the Immigration detention cent re .  After all, when Guardian Australia had a crack at formally obtaining the Detention Logs a couple of years ago, 'smart lawyering' not transparency and accountability prevailed . A nd that was before the issue of exemptions even arose. Hat tip this time to Paul Farrell, Nick Evershed and Helen Davidson and the unknown person or persons risking up to two years imprisonment under Section 42 of the Australian Border Force Act 2015 for secreting this cache out of the system.  There is no defence to the charge of disclosure of protected information (any information obtained in the performance of duties) by an entrusted person ( employee, contractor or consultant) regardless of the significance or insignificance of the information. The reports published "set out ...

How the damning material in videos about the treatment of young boys in the Northern Territory Don Dale Youth Detention Centre came into the hands of ABC Four Corners is not known but with a Royal Commission to investigate the system all may/will be revealed in due course.   The public record includes The NT Children's Commissioner Don Dale Youth Detention Centre Report to Minister September 2015 pdf that provides details of one of the worst instances of mistreatment but not the videos.    Almost certainly the video footage wasn't offered up by those responsible for the system or delivered on a plate via the Information Act 2002.   If someone on the inside thumbed through the Public Interest Disclosure Act beforehand he/she would know it provides protections for reporting through official channels but none for public disclosure to the media or anyone else for any reason, falling short of what is regarded as best practice.     A look further to the...

This post in March commented on the slow, closed door approach to review of open government legislation in NSW and elsewhere. The NSW P arliament imposes deadlines but they pass ... and pass. T he Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 and the Government Information (Information Commissioner) Act 2009 include a requirement for a statutory review to be undertaken by the Minister administering the act "as soon as possible after the period of 5 years from the date of assent to this Act" with a report to be tabled in each House of Parliament within 12 months after the end of the period of 5 years. The review is to determine whether the policy objectives remain valid and whether the terms of the Acts remain appropriate for securing these objectives.  The date of assent for b o th acts was 26 June 2009 , the date of commencement 1 July 2010. Five years after the date of assen t takes us to 26 June 201 4 . A period of 12 months after the end of 5 years for the repo...

Attorney General Senator Brandis led the unsuccessful two year battle to abolish the Office of Australian Information Commissioner that ended in May 2016 when the government announced it would not proceed, finally recognising the weight of numbers in the Senate that favoured an independent watchdog to keep an eye on information access practices.   Now reappointed, the Attorney General according to ZDnet will appoint Timothy Pilgrim for the fifth time as Acting Australian Information Commissioner next week   The office operated from January to June 2015 with two of the three commissioner positions parliament established when it created the office, and since that time with one.   Senator Brandis told Senate Estimates (Q&A pp 42-44) in May this year the decision in  2014 to abolish the office was a 'good economy measure-and we haven't changed our mind."   Following the election, numbers of those in the Senate who have a different view than the Attorney Gener...

It's still up in the air as to who governs - and therefore gets to call most of the shots - and perhaps what the successful major party leader will have to agree to in order to form a government.  Then on an ongoing basis, there is uncertainty about the constraints or influences that will apply to the government policy and legislative agendas because of numbers in the House and Senate. T ransparency, accountability, public integrity, citizen participation , all elements of good government , hardly rated a mention on the campaign hustings. But o ne welcome outcome from the current mess is that three major players, Labor, the Greens and NXT have more open, transparent government on their list of priorities.  In contrast to the Coalition which offered nothing in this space during the election campaign other than open data and more digital services. Those new commitments came on top of the Turnbull government decision to join the Open Government Partnership , a decision s...

Predicting the outcome of the Senate election is beyond me but apart from the Coaltion , Labor and The Greens , the Nick Xenophon Team is sure to be part of the new mix. Senator Nick Xenophon has spoken up and often on open transparent government, whistleblower protection and other issues such as a national anti corruption commission, political donations, full timely disclosure of use of parliamentary entitlements.... He is one of the few parliamentarians to even mention the Open Government Partnership. Here is what the NXT has to say prior to the election on Saturday: (Responses awaited to questions asked/commitments sought by Accountability Roundtable , Transparency International Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia )   We stand for: Honest and accountable government Looking after the national interest - not vested interests. Our core focus is: Predatory Gambling Australian Made & Australian Jobs Government & Corporate Accountability "Every thing we do as a t...