Page 3273 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 23 August 2017
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As the Chief Minister has noted, current requirements are that ministerial travel must be reported on and made public on the Assembly website each six months. He has outlined the necessary breakdown of that, and there is nothing that I need to add on that.
I think the observations around the number of ministerial councils are very interesting. Certainly in my time as a minister that has varied depending on the portfolios I had. Certainly when I was the TAMS minister my travel was much more local. When I was the education minister I spent a lot of time driving around to schools. In some other portfolios I have found that there is a degree more travel involved to attend various COAG processes and to represent the ACT in various fora.
But one of the key areas of integrity and oversight improvements that the Greens have pushed over the years was the new FOI legislation which was passed in the Assembly last year as a result of the parliamentary agreement and which will come into effect in January 2018. That will require a change to the reporting of ministerial travel.
One of the key features of that new FOI legislation is the requirement for an open-access information scheme, which requires ministers to push-publish a range of information. One of those areas is ministerial travel and hospitality expenses. This includes information about all travel and hospitality expenses incurred by the territory for the minister and the minister’s staff. As the legislation notes, open-access information must be accurate, up to date and complete.
The obligation on agencies and ministers to publish information is ongoing, and the information they are required to publish must continually be updated and actively monitored to ensure that the requirement is met. In order for agencies and ministers to fulfil the requirement for information to be up to date, agencies and ministers must consider whether they are obliged to publish the information as the information is created or when it comes into their possession and, if so, to publish the information within a reasonable time.
It is also worth noting that under section 66 of the legislation, the Ombudsman may also publish guidelines to assist agencies and ministers in meeting their obligations. I think that there will be a little settling-in period where we work out exactly how that publishing system or that push system is going to work. I do not think people would expect it to be weekly, for example, but there clearly is a requirement in the legislation for that to be timely.
I think that what Mr Wall has called for in his motion today will be substantially addressed, if not more comprehensively addressed, than the case that he has put forward. I think that should go some way to addressing the concerns that Mr Wall has sought to raise in his motion today.
I was interested in the comparison with the private sector, having travelled for the non-government sector as well. I think there are a range of practices out there. I have seen anything from very strict requirements through to, frankly, some fairly laissez
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