FOI in the news

FOI based media reports over the last week include: an article in The Australian “Costly travels of our cricket-tragic PM” about the Prime Minister’s travel expenses; a Daily Telegraph report on 7 April containing further information about the clean up of toxic waste in Sydney; and another about the high revenue generation capacity of a parking meter in Parramatta which has netted the Council $33,590 per month over four months (compared to $22,000 for the average hotel gaming machine); a Sydney Morning Herald report on 6 April that 5500 vehicles were caught speeding in the “deserted Cross City Tunnel” during the first 6 months of operation;

The Australian had an article on 6 April about 12000 outstanding complaints of child abuse and neglect still to be assessed by Queensland’s Department of Child Safety
In Victoria The Age reported on 7 April about Federal ministerial briefings released but primarily that it had been refused access to documents concerning the BHP Billiton affiliate Tigris Petroleum now under examination in connection with the breach of sanctions in Iraq; and BRW Magazine on 6 April had an article about documents released by the Victorian Department of Justice concerning allegations by former prisoners of abuse and mistreatment by GSL (Australia) which owns and operates the Port Phillip Prison.

ABC NewsOnline reported on 8 April that the South Australian Opposition Treasury spokesman (presumably recovered from dealing with trolley loads of documents released to him just after the election) plans to use FOI to get to the detail of reports of a significant cost blow out in a planned extension of Adelaide’s tram system.

As usual I'm afraid we can't give you links to all these articles as they disappear from free content quickly.