Page 872 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 2 May 2007

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It is a tool for good government, a contract between our Party and the people of the Australian Capital Territory. It shows people what they can expect of us and sets the standards for our work.

What a shame there are no civil remedies for breaches of political contracts.

Majority governments increasingly see the possession and control of information as one of the spoils of office. They resent the inconvenience and loss of spin power that come from relinquishing control of sensitive information flows. When the relevant facts, rationales and alternatives which underpin policy are available for public scrutiny, it becomes that much harder for governments to manage the media and—let us be honest—mislead the electorate by portraying their actions or policy proposals in the most favourable credible light.

Freedom of information has long been recognised as an efficient and relatively cheap mechanism for encouraging excellent procedural standards as well as serving as an important safeguard against corruption. Its value in this latter regard was acknowledged by the WA Inc royal commission, the Fitzgerald report on corruption in Queensland and by the international corruption watchdog, Transparency International.

This government promised an overhaul of the FOI act in its code of good governance. At the time I am sure it did not intend that its overhaul would be a keelhauling which would emasculate the act and enable the minister and agency heads to hide any information that might be politically embarrassing. In the ACT, the scope of conclusive certificates is now so wide ranging that any politically sensitive document can be hidden from public view by being characterised as an internal working document or an executive document.

Transparency in government decision making militates against lazy or dishonest policy work. It raises the bar for public servants who write their policy and advice in the knowledge that independent experts and journalists may one day subject their work to scrutiny. Independent scrutiny brings a level of specialised expertise and competence that ministers and their political advisers can rarely, if ever, hope to achieve. This is a great strength and resource for a government that trusts the electorate and relies on substance rather than spin for its popularity.

I will be supporting the motion, and in particular paragraph 2 of the motion, which is, after all, a motherhood statement that we would expect of any government. I hope the government will at least put on the record a commitment to good governance as outlined in their code of good government.

MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (5.16): The government welcomes the opportunity to discuss its record on the important question of transparency and accountability and to move the amendment you have before you and which I am happy to support.

Since coming to office we have continued to support reforms within the ACT public service aimed at strengthening public access to information and services. We believe that the public have a right to be involved in decisions that affect them, whether those


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