Page 5567 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 4 December 1991
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Clause 108
MR JENSEN (4.46): I move:
Page 51, line 7, at the end of the clause, add the following new subclause:
"(8) The minutes of the meetings of the Heritage Council shall be available for inspection by members of the public unless a certificate of exemption is granted by the Minister.".
I think this is self-explanatory. All I am really saying is that the minutes of the meetings of the Heritage Council should be made available for inspection by members of the public unless a certificate of exemption is granted by the Minister. I understand that the Government will not accept this. All I am really doing is trying to make sure that members of the community do not have to go through the process of FOI if they wish to look at the proceedings of the meetings of the Heritage Council. Heritage can be a very vexed subject, I think, and there is always the potential for the need for FOI.
We all know that the charges for going through the FOI process have been increased quite considerably. I think it is now something like $200 for a private citizen to make an application and it is sometimes very difficult to get an application accepted as being in the public interest. I certainly tried it; and, in fact, in the end, we did not proceed. The Government changed, in fact; so it was not necessary. But, in this case, I think it is important that the minutes of the Heritage Council be available for public inspection, and I think that this would provide an opportunity, in certain circumstances, for the Minister to grant an exemption in much the same way as is provided for under FOI.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (4.47): There is nothing in the legislation that precludes the Heritage Council from releasing its minutes, and I am sure that it would be open about it. At the same time, bearing in mind some of the matters that the Heritage Council will consider, from time to time, in the interests of maintaining free speech within that forum, it might deem it appropriate not to, and I am not sure that Mr Jensen's amendment covers that.
It is another requirement which I do not think we need. The procedures will work well. I do not know why we need this. It does not add anything to the legislation and it takes something away from the way in which this sort of body would normally operate.
Amendment negatived.
Clause agreed to.
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