Litany of problems revealed in office of Victorian FOI Commissioner

Farrah Tomazin in The Sunday Age summarises the report commissioned in April by the Department of Premier and Cabinet into the office of Victorian FOI commissioner Lynne Bertolini​ that exposes "a litany of problems, including "unusual" procurement practices, unmet targets, and "poor conduct" towards some staff."

"The final report, now with Parliament's joint accountability and oversight committee, paints the picture of a dysfunctional office, with "poor conduct" towards the two assistant commissioners; a backlog of reviews and complaints by people seeking FOI documents; and favouritism towards some staff, with "considerable anxiety and stress" among others. It also reveals:

• Since December 2012 the FOI office spent $825,946 on contracts with two selected legal service providers when equivalent organisations in NSW, Queensland and the federal sphere use little or no external legal advice.
• A further $55,000 was spent to hire the Agenda Group for three days of work, including a former executive and colleague from the gambling regulator.
• The average time taken to complete an FOI review was 90.4 days – well in excess of the government's 30-day target. Ms Bertolini completed 130 reviews between last October and April this year, but her assistant commissioners Michael Ison​ and Rachel Westaway​ had only been assigned a combined 19 reviews over the same period."

Ms Bertolini announced her intention to stand down three weeks ago, effective last Saturday.

Legislation to create the Andrews government answer, a new Office of the Public Access Counsellor, is expected early next year.

Deep breaths needed instead of talk about binning Big Tobacco access rights

The Nick Baker - Richard McKenzie piece in Fairfax Media on the two pronged attempt to utilise freedom of information laws to obtain data from surveys on smoking has raised some interesting issues. 

However some reactions - that the applicant shouldn't be able to exercise the right to seek access to government information, that this sort of thing may frustrate public health research and may even warrant legislative amendment - seem way over the top. 

(Addendum- an opinion piece from the Los Angeles Times on the right to access scientific research undertaken at public expense-within limits. And more pertinently this on "Big Tobacco' FOI rights on The Conversation UK and this on The Conversation Australian version. I'm with Nola Ries of University of Newcastle-tobacco companies should be free to use FOI laws even if we don't like it.)

Without seeing the detail of what was sought, what was released in NSW and what reasons were given for refusal of access in Victoria it's difficult to muster the outrage running in some commentary, or be concerned the laws don't adequately protect sensitive information and data.

Baker and McKenzie report a lawyer acting for American Tobacco obtained Cancer Institute NSW research into adults' attitudes to smoking through an application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act. But the Victorian Cancer Council "is spending thousands of dollars" fighting an FOI application from the same lawyer in the Civil and Administrative Tribunal "for data from surveys by thousands of Victorian school children and teenagers that reveal their attitudes to smoking and alcohol."

Just what was sought and obtained from the Cancer Institute NSW is unknown. The Chief Cancer Officer, Professor David Currow said "The Cancer Institute NSW was compelled" to provide tobacco survey data requested under the GIPA act.There are plenty of public interest considerations designed to safeguard sensitive information from disclosure but not possible to comment on the decision without more detail.

The GIPA act differs in many respects from Victoria's FOI act.

There, the yet to appear VCAT decision will throw light on the exemption claims in due course.

Both Victorian Cancer Council Director Todd Harper and Professor of Health Policy at Curtin University Mike Daube (see below) are outraged but whether their concerns about release of de-identified data amount to valid exemption claims is yet to be seen.

FOI is no stranger to Big Tobacco but the idea of a 'block tobacco' FOI amendment is just plain silly.