Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3189 ..

MR OSBORNE (10.58): I present the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 1997, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR OSBORNE: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Mr Speaker, this Bill initially grew out of my experience here in the Assembly in continually being denied access to information which, as far as I could tell, had little or no reason for being withheld. As a new member in this Assembly, I found this practice one of the most frustrating things in trying to adapt to my role as an MLA. In considering this, I have come to believe firmly that information collected and held by the ACT Government is a community resource. Those who collect it do not do so for their own benefit; rather, they are only trustees of that information for the people of Canberra. Unfortunately, that is not always the attitude taken by the government of the day and its bureaucracy.

Our present Freedom of Information Act was copied from the Commonwealth legislation during the formation of self-government in 1989. I believe that the Act was not well adapted to the needs of the ACT at that time and has remained unnecessarily complicated ever since. Having a complex set of FOI laws is an asset for a government which wishes to avoid a high level of public scrutiny. Traditionally, Mr Speaker, around the world, FOI law starts out very simple and then over time is gradually made more complicated as successive governments bring forward amendments to suit themselves. I understand that this has certainly been the case in this country.

A legal right of access to government-held information was established in Australia only about 15 years ago, with the first comprehensive review of the Commonwealth Act being undertaken two years ago. As an Act which provides easy access to a wide range of government information, our present ACT FOI Act is a dismal failure. It is full of provisions which more readily apply to the affairs of a nation and a range of creative exemptions, including the favoured catch-all phrase that releasing a document would "not be in the public interest". Clearly, the time was well overdue for reforming the Act. The approach that I have taken in this task has not been one of slash and burn; rather, I have sought to find a sensible balance of keeping essential government-held information confidential while allowing easy access to the rest.

Over the past two years, the Attorney-General, Mr Humphries, has introduced two significant reforms in the everyday application of the Act, the first being to close down the central FOI office in Civic and to decentralise the whole FOI process to being handled completely within an individual government department or agency itself, and the second being the abolition of fees for personal documents and a reduction of other fees

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .