ALRC Freedoms Inquiry-no place for freedom of information

Submissions close today on the Issues Paper issued as part of the Freedoms Inquiry
by the Australian Law Reform Commission. 

Attorney General Brandis asked the ALRC to "review Commonwealth legislation to identify provisions that unreasonably encroach upon traditional rights, freedoms and privileges." 

The inquiry reflects a commitment made before the 2013 election. As noted at the time common law rights and freedoms are limited. Judges, rarely, 'find' new rights not previously uncovered.

Other rights (the FOI right to access government information and the right to privacy are two of many examples) find their way into law through statute and international instruments. You won't find this sort of thing in the Magna Carta. Legions of Sir Humphreys managed to ward off Freedom of Information legislation in the UK until it finally took effect in 2005. 
 
Thus while freedom of speech got a specific mention in the terms of reference list of traditional rights, and in the Issues Paper, freedom of information didn't. 

I dropped a short note to the commission:

While a fundamental right and freedom recognised in international law, the common law in Australia, drawing on British traditions, does not recognise a right to information. 

This freedom is not listed in the terms of reference for the inquiry. However freedom of information and Commonwealth laws that encroach on this right should not pass without comment in your report.

For example, Secrecy Laws and Open Government in Australia (ALRC Report 112) identified 506 secrecy provisions in 176 pieces of legislation and made 61 recommendations for reform. The report refers to the chilling effect this complex framework has on open government, transparency and the right to access information. The report was tabled in March 2010 and has not, as yet, been implemented.

Many aspects of the Freedom of Information Act fall short of emerging international standards.

The statutory review of the FOI act conducted by Dr Allan Hawke in 2012-13 recommended a comprehensive review of the kind he was unable to undertake. There has been no government response.

As to freedom of information and its place in the law, UNESCO describes freedom of information as 

"an integral part of the fundamental right of freedom of expression, as recognized by Resolution 59 of the UN General Assembly adopted in 1946, as well as by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states that the fundamental right of freedom of expression encompasses the freedom to “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

FOI has also been enshrined as a corollary of freedom of expression in other major international instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and the American Convention on Human Rights (1969)."

The United Nations' Human Rights Committee (General Comment 34) states that freedom of information is integral to human rights under international law "essential for the promotion and protection of human rights." Access to government information, which the committee considers an element of freedom of expression, is an "indispensable condition for the full development of the person" and "the foundation stone for every free and democratic society."

The right of access to government information isn't absolute and must be balanced and adjusted over time to reflect other rights and public interests. 

But not taken away or without reason diminished. 

I didn't mention the potential encroachment on the enjoyment of the right arising from the Attorney General's intention to legislate the Office of Australian Information Commissioner out of existence. 

Maybe the Senate will stop that one.

What chance a 'principled framework to balance secrecy and open and accountable government' ?

Close to zero I venture.

The August 2012 briefing note finally released (well, minus attachments) in response to my FOI application for work undertaken on the Australian Law Reform Commission Report Secrecy Laws and Open Government of December 2009 reveals little progress in those three years on what should have been a major project across government but it doesn't tell the full or current story. 

FOI reforms mooted in 2009 and referred to in the ALRC report were introduced in 2010, but as we know the government is intent on removing a central element of those reforms by disbanding the Office of Australian Information Commissioner.The ALRC strongly supported the concept in its report.

Whistleblower protection law referred to in the ALRC report and mentioned in the briefing note came to pass (finally again) in 2013.

The Attorney General could enlighten us with a statement about where things stand in 2014 although the file might be buried at the bottom of in-trays in AGD. The advice from within no doubt says the report was commissioned by the previous government and arguably no response is required from this one.

However the disclosure reminds that the ALRC recommends a rational, comprehensive approach to reform of the crazy patchwork of secrecy laws currently on the books and sits there possibly gathering dust while the government today introduces changes to legislation that will add to our sizable collection of secrecy laws. I haven't seen any mention of the report in the discussion of the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 or  the changes to legislation foreshadowed by the Attorney General and still to come. 

Maybe it's too much to expect in the current climate but the ALRC proposed "a new and principled framework striking a fair balance between the public interest in open and accountable government and adequate protection for Commonwealth information that should legitimately be kept confidential."

More than 60 recommendations outline what should be done to bring about some coherence and consistency in the statute book's 500 plus secrecy provisions:

• repeal the wide catch all offence provisions in the Crimes Act - s 70 is described as "seriously out of step with public policy developments in Australia and internationally" - and introduction of a new general offence provision limited to disclosures that harm essential public interests, 

• principles to guide review of the hundreds of specific secrecy offences in legislation and the creation of any new ones such as those currently before parliament,

• and measures to improve information handling practices across government including sorting out in a more definitive fashion the relationship between FOI and secrecy laws. 

The draconian s 70 'unauthorised disclosure' provision is among the worst of the complex, confusing and uncertain secrecy laws on the books. We have had voices urging change to this provision that go back to former High Court Chief Justice Sir Harry Gibbs in 1991. One of the few  against change however was the recently replaced secretary of the Attorney General's Department Roger Wilkins, who told a senate committee way back in 2008 (page three of the transcript Thursday 27 November 2008 (PDF 192KB):"My personal view. I am not sure of the government's view on this. My personal view would be that you should not interfere with section 70 of the Crimes Act. That should remain intact". 

Whether in Wilkins time, extending to 2014, ministers had a chance to consider the matter is another question.

In 2014 a new principled framework for secrecy and open government is way overdue.

The ALRC has laid out how to go about this. Alas, no sign of starters. 

Mooted ALRC privacy cause of action inquiry not officially dead yet

On and on and on went the questions in Senate Estimates this week from Shadow Attorney Senator Brandis to Professor Croucher, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, about the reference on a statutory cause of action for breach of privacy, announced in March as part of the media reform package, but before the package fell in a heap. I thought it had disappeared along with the rest. That still may be the case. The short summary from the Q&A:

there has been discussion about terms of reference with the Attorney General's office and the Department in the context of the Commission's future work program; a draft or two was kicking around at some point; the reference may or may not eventuate, at the Attorney's call; and Professor Croucher is confident if it does, that it would involve more than simply a rerun of the same issue considered in detail in the Commission's 2008 report.

You like me might find water torture creeping into your consciousness if you wade through the Hansard extract: