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The heading on this December 2015 post reflected my views on a column by Jack Waterford in The Canberra Times FOI veteran lets fly with a few wild swings and low blows in which he delivered an assessment of the contributions to open government by former Australian Information Commissioner Professor John McMillan. In my view both unfair and unjustified. Professor Mcmillan subsequently took legal action against Fairfax Media, publishers of the CT. The following statement was appended to the online version of the article and published in the 11 November edition: Professor John McMillan In legal proceedings brought over this article, Professor John McMillan alleged that it constituted an attack on his personal integrity, performance and competence in his roles as former Commonwealth Ombudsman and Australian Information Commissioner. If any reader understood it that way, The Canberra Times unreservedly withdraws any such suggestion and sincerely apologises to Professor McMillan for any hurt...

All about events for Right to Know Day Thursday 28 September. In particular: The Office of the Information Commissioner, Queensland is holding the annual Solomon Lecture for Right to Know Day on 28 September 2017. Mr Kerry O’Brien, one of Australia’s most distinguished and respected journalists, will deliver this year’s lecture and draw on the 30th anniversary of the Fitzgerald Inquiry in Queensland as an opportunity to revisit some of the lessons learnt over the past three decades around open government, including the media’s role. Following the Lecture will be a panel discussion featuring Channel 7’s Freedom of Information Editor, Alison Sandy, Queensland University of Technology Vice Chancellor Peter Coaldrake AO and Dr David Solomon AM. Journalist Madonna King will lead the panel discussion. Live stream: www.ustream.tv/channel/the-edge-external-events 28 September 2017 We encourage all Australians to explore their Right to Know. Take a moment to discover the impor...

Whose interests? Why defining the 'public interest' is such a challenge What may be deemed in the public interest today may not be so in a decade’s time. shutterstock Jane Johnston , The University of Queensland The “public interest” is a political concept that’s regularly trotted out along with other democratic principles such as transparency and accountability. And, like transparency and accountability, it’s difficult to pin down exactly what it means. Former NSW Ombudsman Chris Wheeler has pointed out: … while it is one of the most used terms in the lexicon of public administration, it is arguably the least defined and least understood … identifying or determining the appropriate public interest in any particular case is often no easy task. Centuries of scholarship examine the public interest alongside the “common good”, “common interest”, and “public good”, associated with some big names in political philosophy. Common among their thinking was the idea that governme...

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...