Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro blasts heavy redaction of Gunner Goverment’s renewable report
AFTER the NT News received a heavily redacted report into how the Gunner Government would achieve its 50 per cent renewable target, the Opposition has called for more transparency
Northern Territory
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OPPOSITION leader Lia Finocchiaro has slammed the redaction of 116 pages of a 118-page report into renewable energy as the NT Government pointed the finger at a freedom-of-information officer.
The NT News on Thursday revealed its FOI request for the “Achieving the Northern Territory Renewable Energy Target” report, which cost $218,768 to prepare, had been almost entirely covered in black ink.
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Speaking on Thursday, National Resilience Minister Natasha Fyles dodged questions as to whether Territorians had a right to know whether the 50 per cent renewable target would be achieved.
“It’s not about what may or may not be in individual documents,” Ms Fyles said.
“There is legislation for officers to make a decision around whether that should be provided,” she said.
Ms Fyles refused to be say whether the officer made the right decision to heavily censor the report, prepared by HoustonKemp.
“That officer was acting in the best interests under the Act that they believed, and there are review mechanisms for that to be looked at further,” she said.
Ms Fyles repeatedly directed journalists to instead have redacted documents appealed.
Responding to Ms Fyles, CLP Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said taxpayers deserved to see the report.
“If it wasn’t so serious it’d be comedic,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
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“The Gunner Labor Government shows us every day that they don’t care about transparency and scrutiny.
“Why shouldn’t Territorians get to see what they paid for?”
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