Yes, Prime Minister

The Sydney Morning Herald editorial today( "What kind of Mr Hacker") sees good coming from the boost the Prime Minister gave to professionalism in the public service in his address this week, but.......

"We would have hoped, however, to hear Mr Rudd sound more proactive about inclusive government and accountability. He repeated his promise to abolish the "conclusive certificates" allowing agency heads to deny freedom of information requests, and he renewed his commitment to appoint a federal freedom-of-information commissioner. But officials don't need to wait on such formal changes. Six months after the election, nothing has altered in the way Canberra handles FoI requests. Mr Rudd should have told the department and agency heads it was now time to err on the side of openness."