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Published today on the AUSLAW BLOG: 11/07/2017   /   AUSPUBLAW   /   0 COMMENTS BY   PETER TIMMINS The voters aren’t happy. While there is no single antidote for this winter of discontent, the way government governs is a contributing factor. The government tells us that belief in democracy is a shared Australian value and as part of a new approach to citizenship for those who seek to join us, that newcomers will be tested to demonstrate their commitment. Yet forty per cent of Australians   are not satisfied   with the way democracy is working. Only five per cent trust government. And   the majority of Australians   think their politicians are corrupt. Calls for reform   propose steps to make decision-making more transparent and politicians more accountable for their actions; for politicians to get serious about cleaning up public life; and for more collaboration between government and citizens in policymaking, regulation and operational ...

Attorney General Mark Speakman has announced the proposed appointment of Samantha Gavel as NSW Privacy Commissioner. T he Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Ombudsman, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission and the Crime Commission gets  to confirm the appointment... or otherwise. And the good news, many years late, is that the government will make the position full time.  The Commissioner has  been part-time since the first appointment in 1999  and for long periods there was an Acting Commissioner, including 2003-07 and 2009-2011.  “Ms Gavel is a leader in privacy protection who is currently the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner, and was previously the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman for six years,” Mr Speakman said in a Media release  Paris Cowan in IT News in February recounted how privacy regulation everywhere around the country is under resourced. Budgeted expenditure for the Information and Privacy Commission in 201...

 Professor David Ben-Tovim , Flinders University The recent jailing of British breast surgeon Ian Paterson after performing multiple unnecessary operations has highlighted the issue of hospital safety. Paterson’s unnecessary surgeries included some performed in private hospitals, which prompted UK doctors to call for private hospitals to report similar patient safety data as public hospitals, including unexpected deaths and serious injuries. This example shows how little we know about patient safety and quality in our private hospitals, not only in the UK, but also in Australia. What do we know about hospital safety and quality? In Australia, one of the best places to look for information on hospital safety and quality is the MyHospitals website, a commonwealth department site run by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare . The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is provided with data about every patient treated in an Australian hospital, both public and p...

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...