Page 1343 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 2012
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The other point that should be made when it comes to government practices is the importance of proper information storage and access systems. The Greens will have amendments to shorten the period of time in which FOI decisions must be made and information provided to applicants. Last year we moved a motion on government 2.0 and opportunities for the free availability of government information that this presented. Again this is something that really has to be driven by the government itself rather than by legislative reform.
I will conclude with the observation of the current Australian Information Commissioner that open government is a catchword as well as a fundamental doctrine in a democratic government. This bill is our opportunity to apply the doctrine and ensure that in the ACT open government is not just a catchphrase.
As I said earlier, the Greens very much appreciate the patience of both other parties and apologise that we were not able to have our amendments ready for debate today. They are very significant; they have taken some time. We have certainly been involved in considerable discussions with parliamentary counsel to ensure we get them right before circulating them. We have had broad, in-principle discussions about our direction. I think I have certainly flagged today the tenor of those changes. We very much look forward to working with both parties to ensure that we create the best possible freedom of information scheme for the ACT, and we are very pleased to support the principle of the reforms being proposed in the bill today.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (4.16), in reply: I thank members for their support of this bill in principle. The bill represents a key milestone in the implementation of the government’s policy on public sector transparency and openness. Central to this policy is a push model of information release. The government is committed to being the most open government in the country. In line with this commitment, this FOI bill facilitates the proactive release of information and generally makes it easier to obtain government-held information.
The intention is that the bill and the open government policy will change the culture and attitude of those who hold information. They will embed an acceptance that government-held information is a public resource and, as such, should be open to access by the public unless there is a compelling and legitimate reason to withhold it. The Chief Minister stated in her speech on open government that the more openness we have in our government the better and the more information we provide to the public the better. This bill is a significant step in achieving more openness and keeping the public better informed in relation to the governance of this community.
The bill makes several improvements to the Freedom of Information Act to ensure that government-held information is more accessible. As I said when introducing the bill, it proposes to amend the objects of the act to clearly state that information held by the government is a public resource and, accordingly, should be managed for public purposes. As I will discuss, the object of the act must be considered when determining when it would be contrary to the public interest to provide access to conditionally exempt documents. In this way, the amendments to the objects proposed
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