faulker03

The Prime Minister in conjunction with the resignation of Health minister Sussan Ley has announced a commitment to further changes to the parliamentary entitlements system. The changes go beyond the recommendations in the Conde report already accepted in principle and according to an earlier announcement to be acted upon in the first half of 2017. The PM: "Australians are entitled to expect that politicians spend taxpayers' money carefully, ensuring at all times that their work expenditure represents an efficient, effective and ethical use of public resources," he said. "We should be, as politicians, backbenchers and ministers, we should be as careful and as accountable with taxpayers' money as we possibly can be." Mr Turnbull also announced that a new body overseeing parliamentary expenses would be created. " The Government believes that the work expenses of parliamentarians, including ministers, should be administered and overseen by an independe...

Dear Neglected Reader, I've been otherwise occupied for large chunks of this year in my role as interim Convener of the Australian Open Government Partnership Network. Postings in this our tenth year suffered I'm afraid.   Loads of things I planned to bring to your attention... but alas, 140 characters was sometimes the best I could manage. (Follow @FOIguru) The good news is that after a a bumpy, frequently interrupted less than perfect process, Australia now has a national action plan with 15 commitments that constitute a broad program of reforms.  Some of those commitments will be of particular interest to you: 1.3 Extractive industries transparency Australia will enhance disclosure of company payments and government revenues from the oil, gas and mining sectors. We will do this by implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Standard (including working to enhance company disclosure of payments to governments for the sale of petroleum and minerals...

On 2 December 1766 Sweden enacted what is regarded as the first freedom of information law. The most recent translation into English was done by Ian Giles and Peter Graves, Scandinavian Studies, University of Edinburgh and released on 7th October 2016 in Edinburgh. The Australian information commissioners and the New Zealand Ombudsman have issued the  statement below to mark the occasion. From the Australian perspective as we wait for release of the government's first Open Government Partnership National Action, thought to be next week, let's hope for a commitment to necessary reforms that truly recognises the right to access government information "is a cornerstone of modern democratic society."  Cornerstone- a foundation stone, mainstay, linchpin, centrepiece, core, heart, backbone, anchor. Submissions on this aspect of the draft commitment released by the government for public comment on 31 October suggested the cornerstone is in need of close inspection, fundame...

We know auditors go about their work quietly.... Even so I was surprised to learn recently that the Australian National Audit Office has underway a performance audit Administration of the Freedom of Information Act : Entities : Attorney-General’s Department; Office of the Australian Information Commissioner; Department of Social Services; Department of Veterans' Affairs.   Objective : To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of entities’ implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 . Audit Criteria: The Attorney-General’s Department and Office of the Australian Information Commissioner effectively and efficiently perform their respective roles in providing guidance and assistance to entities and monitoring compliance with the FOI Act. The selected entities effectively and efficiently process FOI document access requests. The selected entities release relevant information under the Information Publication Scheme (IPS). Wikimedia Commons:Paty Montano Mention of the a...

It's been quite a journey since Australia was first invited to join the Open Government Partnership in August 2011, since the Labor Government signed on in May 2013, and since Prime Minister Turnbull revived Australia's commitment in November 2015, but... A draft Open Government National Action Plan has been released this morning by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for public consultation. The Minister for Finance has drawn attention to the plan and invited public comment. (Administrative responsibility remains with PM&C) The draft Plan can be accessed/downloaded here: PDF:  Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan DOCX:  Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan HTML: Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan As the minister states, the draft was developed through a consultation process that began in December 2015 and was informed by an interim working group established in August 2016.  The extent of 'ambition' i...

Heath Aston  in The Sydney Morning Herald A one-page letter that the federal government has spent a year and a half and tens of thousands of dollars trying to keep from public sight raises explosive questions about Barnaby Joyce's conduct and "integrity". The March 2015 letter written by Paul Grimes, the former head of the Agriculture Department, was sent 10 days before he was sacked amid fallout from the so-called "Hansard-gate" affair in which the transcript of some of Mr Joyce's statements in Parliament were quietly altered. Australian Information Commissioner Pilgrim in March decided the letter sought under the Freedom of Information Act by Opposition front bencher Joel Fitzgibbon (and seperately by the Herald and Weekly Times) was not exempt. As Aston writes: Mr Joyce's department fought that ruling, spent $80,000 on engaging Ernst & Young to review its public information processes, and then fought the matter through the Administrati...

This post four years ago commented on the cringe-worthy news that Governor General's official correspondence with the Queen after the event is packed off to archives at Buckingham Palace and beyond reach of Australian disclosure laws. Now it emerges that GG Kerr's 1975 correspondence with the Palace that he designated personal is 'private' in the hands of National Archives Australia, not part of official Commonwealth records and subject to normal archives disclosure rules, is embargoed until at least 2027, and the Queen's private secretary holds a final veto over release even after that date. Shoulders to the wheel folks-If you can contribute to the out of pockets for this legal challenge to quaint ancient world notions of British crown privilege, it's a worthy cause.  $17 k and counting....