Bright new open government year yet to dawn in NSW.

Matthew Moore in the Sydney Morning Herald (Shortage of candidates stalls FOI) had the NSW Attorney General confirm the rumour reported here that the first attempt to recruit an information commissioner had been abandoned with headhunters now on the job. This was a position that last September was of such urgency it warranted a two week response deadline to public advertisements.

In an editorial (the second in this link) "Shutters start to close once more", the paper said "the slackening pace of reform in this area is cause for serious concern, which it is, and commented:

.. go-slow tactics are standard bureaucratic procedure where a policy goes against the interests of the public service. They have been part of the gradual process by which existing freedom-of-information laws have been rendered ineffective in this state.

The Herald urged Premier Keneally to match her predecessor's enthusiasm for genuine freedom-of-information reforms which put the public interest, not Labor's interest, first and I'd add amen to that.