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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4501 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

It is quite clear that the intention with this legislation is to hold it over to the next Assembly, to refer it to Mr Humphries's committee, as Mr Wood put it, although I would like to correct him. I think it is highly likely that the Legal Affairs Committee will be chaired by Ms Tucker.

Mr Osborne: God help us! Give me social policy.

MR MOORE: It will broaden her experience, and Mr Osborne can have social policy to broaden his experience. It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that the whole confidentiality system does need to be shaken up and this is an appropriate next step. I am very enthusiastic about ensuring that this next step is taken. I will be in there next year trying to see that it can be taken as quickly as possible. When we have taken this step, let us take the one after that.

MR OSBORNE (7.53), in reply: I rise to thank all the members for their support. I must admit that I am a little bit suspicious about the two major parties giving their support to this Bill, knowing full well that it does not make any difference until the next Assembly. I certainly believe both Mr Wood and Mr Humphries when they say that they do see some merit in the Bill.

Mr Moore: When Mr Wood is Chief Minister it will be done.

MR OSBORNE: When Mr Wood is Chief Minister I hope he will drive this through the next Assembly. I take on board the criticism from both Mr Moore and Ms Tucker that this Bill does not go quite far enough in certain areas. Believe me, I was well aware of that when I tabled the Bill. The reality was that in our office we received very little assistance over the last couple of years in putting this Bill together. I will certainly be reintroducing this legislation in the new Assembly, should I return. If I do not, I hope that Chief Minister Wood or Mr Moore or Ms Tucker will take up the baton.

Mr Speaker, I would like to make a few observations in closing. When I first came into this place in 1995 I was not carrying an enormous amount of political baggage. My intention was to represent my constituents as well as possible and to learn. One thing I learnt very quickly, Mr Speaker, was that governments, all governments, love secrets. Governments and their bureaucracies appear to spend a great deal of time working out cunning ways of ensuring that people do not get the information they are seeking; or, if ordinary people do manage to get their hands on it, ensuring that it is presented in such a way as to be completely meaningless. Each time a government seems to be giving ground and opening up on a particular issue, it invents new and better ways of hiding it.

Freedom of Information Acts around the country are characterised by long lists of exempt items and, as time goes by, the list grows. Maybe a better name for most of our FOI laws would be the "Don't Bother Asking Act" or the "You Must Be Kidding Law". There is a host of examples of exemptions, but the most topical display of Australian governments' eternal quest to perfect the craft of secrecy is the cunning cover-all known as commercial-in-confidence. It seems that nowadays almost any meeting between a government and business can be deemed secret simply by saying, "I am sorry, but that agreement, or that meeting or that payment is commercial-in-confidence".

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