Page 1294 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 2012
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The Liberal opposition will give in-principle support to the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill. This bill responds, in part, to some of the recommendations of the JACS committee’s inquiry into the Freedom of Information Act.
The key recommendation coming out of that inquiry was to repeal the current act and replace it with legislation that adopts, as far as possible, commonwealth legislation. This includes the reforms to the commonwealth law that were made in November 2010. However, in relation to cabinet documents, the committee recommends that a New Zealand so-called purposive clause rather than a categorical approach be adopted; I will come to this matter again later.
In adopting the commonwealth’s approach we do two things. Firstly, it will allow the ACT to keep in step more easily with changes that are brought about at the commonwealth level, and, secondly, it provides some level of consistency between the two jurisdictions, noting that it would be a handy feature for citizens of the ACT. They could expect a consistent approach between the two jurisdictions that they have most to do with.
Clearly there inevitably will be some differences because of the nature and responsibilities of the two governments, but consistency as far as is practical should be our key goal. It is pleasing to note that the government has picked up on the spirit of this recommendation, although there is some distance to go before true reform is achieved in FOI in the territory law.
When we get to the detail stage I understand that the Greens will be introducing a raft of amendments that subject the government’s approach to some quite radical surgery. The Greens’ goal seems to be to bring ACT law more into line with Queensland law. Indeed a number of the amendments that I will also introduce pick up some of Queensland’s approach. However, I maintain my view that our law should be more aligned to commonwealth law, and I think I will have to look very carefully, when they arrive, at the Greens’ amendments before I consider whether they can be supported.
It has been agreed by all parties that the debate on this bill will be adjourned after the in-principle stage and that we will have some time to consider the detail stage when we come back in May.
Apart from adopting the key features of the commonwealth’s FOI act, this bill today carries another four elements. Firstly, documents released under FOI will be published on the web within 15 days after releasing the document to the person requesting them. This is currently ACT government practice. I think that this is a positive step and this responds to a number of the JACS committee’s recommendations.
Secondly, the bill amends the objects clause to state that government-held information is a public resource. This supports the underlying presumption in these amendments that government documents should be made available to the public unless their release is against the public interest. However, I do not believe that this goes far enough. Indeed, the government recognised this when the attorney in his presentation speech
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