Page 5530 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2011
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The presumption in favour of release of information represents a whole-of-government policy that applies across a range of government information, not just information requested under the FOI Act.
Members would be aware that on 17 October the Open Government website was launched. This website not only will be the medium for the publication of FOI materials, but also provides the public with easy access to government summaries of cabinet outcomes, ACT government contracts and—I am sure the shadow treasurer will be particularly interested in this—strategic plans.
To strengthen the clarity of the FOI Act, the bill changes the categories of exempt documents. It rearranges the exemptions from access into two distinct parts. This is designed to make it clear which documents are generally exempt, and which are conditionally exempt subject to a public interest test. These amendments align the ACT with the recent changes to the commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982.
The first category of exempt documents deals with generally exempt documents. That is, their exemption is not subject to a public interest test. Documents will be exempt if they satisfy the criteria in any of the categories in this part.
The second category deals with documents that will only be exempt if it is contrary to the public interest for them to be disclosed under the act. This category will work in conjunction with the public interest test applying to all conditionally exempt documents.
Previously, documents could be exempt on the basis that it would be contrary to the public interest for the document to be disclosed or that it was proved that it would be in the public interest for the document to be disclosed. The bill provides that, under the amended act, all conditionally exempt documents should be disclosed unless it would be contrary to the public interest for this disclosure to occur.
The public interest test set out in this bill provides a single test to determine whether disclosure would be contrary to the public interest. The public interest test will set out factors favouring the release of documents and factors that cannot be taken into account when determining whether disclosure would be contrary to the public interest. Underpinning the push model for information release, the test will make it easier for applicants to access documents than under the previous exemption framework.
The bill also removes several ineffective or redundant provisions. The removed provisions include the protection from an action for copyright infringement, which is redundant, and several exemptions that are unnecessary because they are already covered by other exemptions.
The bill splits the current exemption for documents relating to business affairs into two separate exemptions. This was done to maintain alignment with the commonwealth Freedom of Information Act.
The portion of the current business affairs exemption relating to documents disclosing trade secrets or commercially valuable information has been separated from the
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