Chapman’s office squashes FoIs into secrecy reforms
The Opposition says there is ridiculous irony in Vickie Chapman’s department squashing FoI requests into secrecy reforms. But the AG says Labor’s complaint is “a bit rich”.
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The release of almost 50 documents related to the creation of new freedom of information laws have been rejected by the Attorney-General’s department.
And one of the few documents to be released showed a senior legal staff member in the department pushed for a key part of a public discussion forum for new laws to be removed during consultation.
The State Opposition, who sought the documents, have appealed the decision as they plan to reject the new laws in State Parliament this week.
But the Attorney-General said the rules that allow for the documents to remain confidential were created when Labor was in government.
Opposition legal affairs spokesman Kyam Maher told The Advertiser the rejection of the documents lacked transparency.
“There is a great deal of irony, but it just goes to show that the Government is not serious about transparency or your right to know,” he said.
“The very thing that they say is increasing transparency you are not allowed to understand what people think about it. It is just ridiculous.”
One of the documents that was released included an exchange between an executive director of legal and legislature services, Joanna Martin, and a manager of strategics communications Joanna Hughes – both from the Attorney-General’s department.
Ms Hughes said the staff that maintain the State Government’s public consultation website YourSAy were not keen for the department to use the platform without a discussion board.
“I do understand that an open and transparent public engagement process is the purpose of YourSAy, so I can see it from their perspective,” she said.
“I would recommend we include a discussion board for the above reasons particular topic such as freedom of information, but as we did with the farm trespass consultation won’t make comments ourselves.
“I realise it may not provide much useful input but it still provides a platform for the public to have their say.”
However, Ms Martin argued that unless the YourSAy staff could monitor the board, and immediately delete sensitive, defamatory or legally sensitive information it should not be included. The discussion board was not used.
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Mr Maher said he did not see any way Labor could support the proposed laws that could pass the Lower House and reach the Upper House this week.
“The legislation does not do what the Liberals say it does, in terms of accountability and transparency, and we will be moving amendments to better reflect the wishes of people that use the scheme,” he said.
Attorney-General Vickie Chapman said it is “a bit rich” for the Labor Party to be calling into question the overhaul of the FOI process considering their track record with FOI laws.
“This Government has gone through a lengthy process to overhaul a system which will lead to greater transparency across the FOI system and I’m very keen for this legislation to get through parliament as soon as possible,” Ms Chapman said.
“The Labor Party were told on April 9 that, as is the practice of this Government, and the former Labor Government, the submissions themselves are not released.
“However, the Labor Party were provided with the full list of those who did make submissions and were informed that third parties may consent to the release of their submission, but that is entirely a matter for them.”