Page 2394 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 August 2006
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In addition to this, Territory and Municipal Services Department City Rangers are authorised under the Litter Act 2004, to issue infringements for littering where proof beyond reasonable doubt exists.
(2) When it is not possible to positively identify which building site caused the litter to be on public land, officers of Territory and Municipal Services will remove it.
(3) To minimise the likelihood of further such incidents the ACT Planning and Land Authority will be undertaking audits of the sites in question as well as contacting the private sector building surveyors to ensure that Building Code compliance checks include control of litter on sites.
In addition, City Rangers will patrol the site on a regular basis in an effort to immediately identify any incident and establish the offender. To assist in the immediate identification of a littering incident, members of the public are encouraged to report sightings on 132281.
(4) If it is not possible to positively identify which building site caused the litter to be on public land, officers of Territory and Municipal Services will remove it.
Freedom of information requests
(Question No 1152)
Mr Smyth asked the Chief Minister, upon notice, on 6 June 2006 (redirected to the Attorney-General):
(1) In relation to an article entitled “FOI delays highlighted” published on page 36 of the Australian Financial Review on 2 June 2006, are there any similar concerns about delays with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in the ACT;
(2) What is the average length of time to meet a FOI request;
(3) What has been the shortest time and longest time taken to provide a FOI request in this term in office.
Mr Corbell: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) The article referred to concerns in a recent report on government transparency by Victoria’s Ombudsman. According to the article, almost half of the FOI requests in Victoria take longer than the required 45 days to process.
The ACT Freedom of Information Act 1989 has similar statutory timeframes for the completion of requests made under the legislation. This government is very conscientious in upholding these timeframes and I am pleased to report that, based on statistics published in the previous four Department of Justice and Community Safety annual reports (years 2001/02 to 2004/05), 71% of all requests were processed within the 30 day timeframe.
It should be noted that the ACT timeframe, at 30 days, is considerably more rigorous than the timeframe of 45 days which is prescribed under the Victorian FOI Act. In considering the compliance of Government Agencies and Departments with the 30 day
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