The Budget : read all about it

Maybe more than you ever wanted to know about the Commonwealth Government Budget in today's news. I'll be interested to see if someone with more knowledge of these things provides an assessment of the budget papers, given the Government's commitment to Operation Sunlight. The six key objectives are:

1. Tightening the outcomes and outputs framework;
2. Changing the Budget Papers to improve their readability and usefulness;
3. Improving the transparency of estimates;
4. Expanding the reach of budget reporting;
5. Improving inter-generational reporting; and
6. Improving the financial framework.

The Budget papers are here.

Not much else that seems relevant to Freedom of Information and privacy issues, other than the funding for the Information Commissioner referred to here last night if you missed it.

Stephanie Peatling in the Sydney Morning Herald on the Government's $1.3 billion boost to solar energy includes this snippet:

"As part of the budget, the Government also released the Wilkins review, a report by the former head of the NSW Cabinet Office, Roger Wilkins, on the effectiveness of the Government's energy-efficiency measures. The Herald was repeatedly denied access to the report despite freedom-of-information requests. The report recommended a significant streamlining of existing programs."