Bouquets and brickbats.

Congratulations to OpenAustralia for putting up on-line the Register of Interests return for each Senator- a laborious task of scanning the paper documents and providing a link to the return on each Senator's page.It's something of an indication of where we are that many of the returns consist of scrawly handwriting- nothing too 21st century here.

Open Australia plans to do the same thing for returns by members of the House of Representatives- if they can get a bulk scanner!

But brickbats to the Parliament itself and the Government from whom we expect leadership in this area, for not seizing the initiative and doing what was necessary well before now to make this type of information available on the web in an easily accessible click-through form. Ditto the state equivalents (all but South Australia I understand) where this information is still stuck in paper form in the Parliament Tabled Papers Office. Ditto most of them when it comes to other disclosures such as details of payments and expenditure by MPs. I could go on, but......